United States Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) has the authority, pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1592, to issue penalties, and pre-penalty notices, to importers resulting from non-compliance with U.S. customs laws and regulations.  Generally, these pre-penalty notices will be issued after an importer has responded, or failed to respond, to a CBP-issued Request for Information (Customs Form 28 or CF 28) or Notice of Action (Customs Form 29 or CF 29).

It is important for importers to note that the pre-penalty notice is exactly that; namely a notice that serves to inform the importer that CBP is contemplating issuing an actual penalty claim.  When the pre-penalty notice is issued, the penalty itself has not yet been levied against the importer.  Pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1618, an importer has the right to formally request remission (elimination) or mitigation (lowering) of the contemplated penalty.  At this point in the process, it behooves the importer to contact an experienced import/customs attorney as soon as possible for purposes of preparing a petition that may either remit entirely or mitigate the contemplated issue, particularly since an importer is afforded only 60 days from the date of the mailing of the pre-penalty notice to file its petition. 

Howard A. Bender, Esq. is experienced in properly preparing such petitions and has achieved great success in having contemplated CBP penalties either substantially reduced or eliminated completely.  If you or your company has been issued a pre-penalty notice from CBP, contact us to arrange a free consultation to see how we can help you make the best case for reducing, or even eliminating, the contemplated penalty.