ICC v. Transcon Lines, 513 U.S. 138, 8 (1995)

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Cite as: 513 U. S. 138 (1995)

Opinion of the Court

credit practices of carriers . . . [by] seek[ing] a federal-court injunction requiring a carrier to comply with the regulations . . . ." Id., at 352, 349. We conclude that the ICC here is exercising the enforcement powers we acknowledged in Commercial Metals.

The Act grants the ICC broad authority to bring civil actions to enforce the statute and regulations or orders issued under it. 49 U. S. C. § 11702. As respondents themselves concede, the trustee is attempting in this case to collect liquidated damages in violation of the ICC's credit regulations. See Brief in Opposition 4-5. To the extent the injunction applies to "a bankruptcy trustee" applying liquidated damages "to aggregate balance-due claims sought for collection on past shipments," the ICC seeks a prospective bar to the trustee's violation of 49 CFR § 1320.2(g)(2)(iii) (1994). This aspect of the ICC's suit is, in effect, a compliance action— the precise relief the Court approved in Commercial Metals. To the extent the ICC seeks to enjoin collection of liquidated damages as a remedy for Transcon's lack of notification in the original bills, see 49 CFR § 1320.3(c) (1992), and nonissuance of revised bills within 90 days, see § 1320.2(g)(2)(vi), this remedy too is appropriate.

The Court's observation in Commercial Metals that the choice of remedies for violation of its regulations is "best left to the ICC," 456 U. S., at 352, was a particular invocation of the general principle that "the relation of remedy to policy is peculiarly a matter for administrative competence," Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U. S. 177, 194 (1941); ICC v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 467 U. S. 354, 355 (1984) (ICC "has discretion to fashion remedies in furtherance of its statutory responsibilities") (citing Trans Alaska Pipeline Rate Cases, 436 U. S. 631, 654 (1978)). Although the ICC's authority to determine proper remedies for violations under the Act is not without limits, its judgment that a particular remedy is an appropriate exercise of its enforcement authority under 49 U. S. C. § 11702(a)(4) is entitled to some defer-

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