FMCSA Had a Way to Get Your Money Back From Hostage Movers. They Cancelled It.

If your belongings are held hostage by a moving company today, FMCSA cannot order the carrier to compensate you. The agency has no administrative mechanism to make you whole. You can file a complaint. You can call the police. You can hire a lawyer. But the federal agency responsible for regulating the company that is holding your belongings has no tool to force that company to pay you back.

This was not always the case. From April 2015 to February 2020, FMCSA had a functioning policy for compensating hostage load victims. The agency cancelled it.

On April 16, 2015, William A. Quade, FMCSA's Associate Administrator for Enforcement, issued an internal memorandum titled 'Compensating Hostage Load Victims through Settlement Agreements.' The policy applied to all FMCSA staff.

The procedure was straightforward. When an FMCSA investigator confirmed that a carrier had held household goods hostage in violation of 49 USC 14915, the Field Administrator would initiate an Order to Show Cause proposing to suspend the carrier's operating authority. The carrier was then given two choices:

1. Enter into a Settlement Agreement requiring the carrier to compensate the consumer directly. 2. Accept the suspension of operating authority and pay the civil penalty.

To encourage carriers to compensate victims, the Field Administrator had discretion to reduce the civil penalty or withhold the suspension if the carrier paid the consumer first. The incentive structure was clear: pay the victim or lose your license.

The policy required investigators to complete a 'Shipper Harm Assessment' for each victim, documenting:

The value of goods held hostage and not delivered. The amount the consumer paid when the carrier failed to provide transportation. Broker charges and other expenses incurred to recover property. The amount paid over 100% of a binding estimate or 110% of a non-binding estimate.

Each eligible consumer was identified individually. Their damages were calculated individually. The Settlement Agreement was negotiated to obtain compensation equal to the documented harm.

This was not a theoretical framework. It built on an existing 2014 enforcement policy for hostage load violations (MC-ECE-2014-0001). It gave field investigators a concrete tool to convert a consumer complaint into a consumer remedy.

In May 2019, a DOT Administrative Law Judge ruled in the Riojas case (FMCSA-2012-0174-0056) that FMCSA lacks the statutory authority to assess civil penalties for violations of 'commercial regulations,' which include nearly all household goods consumer protection rules under 49 CFR 375. FMCSA conceded the point.

On February 20, 2020, FMCSA issued enforcement policy memo MC-ECE-2020-0001, which explicitly cancelled the 2015 hostage compensation policy. The memo acknowledged that FMCSA 'lacks express statutory authority to assess civil penalties using its administrative proceedings' for Riojas-affected violations. It noted that many affected violations had been 'rarely enforced in the past 6 years.'

The 2020 memo superseded or modified at least eight previous enforcement policies dating back to 2012, including the 2014 hostage load enforcement policy and the 2015 compensation procedure. The entire enforcement apparatus for hostage loads was dismantled in a single document.

Hostage load complaints filed with FMCSA were accelerating when the compensation policy was cancelled:

2017: 364 hostage complaints 2018: 409 (12% increase) 2019: 495 (21% increase) 2020: 899 (82% increase) 2021: 932 through July alone (AARP)

The full-year 2021 total across all HHG complaint categories reached 9,128. Hostage loads were one of the fastest-growing categories. FMCSA cancelled the hostage compensation policy in February 2020, the same year hostage complaints nearly doubled.

Nothing.

FMCSA's alternative enforcement tools after Riojas include Notices of Violation, Letters of Probable Violation (LOPVs), suspension of operating authority, and out-of-service orders. None of these compensate the consumer. An LOPV tells the carrier it 'may' pay a proposed penalty, 'may' request a conference, and that if nothing happens, FMCSA 'may' refer the case to the Department of Justice. Payment is described as not constituting 'an admission that any violation(s) occurred.'

The 2020 memo lists these tools as alternatives. It does not explain how any of them result in a consumer receiving money back.

In FY 2025, FMCSA closed zero broker enforcement cases. The 2025 HHG violation data shows only 2 hostage load violations documented across all 167 HHG investigations, despite thousands of consumer complaints about hostage loads every year. The enforcement tool that replaced the compensation policy is, in practice, no enforcement at all.

If your belongings are held hostage today:

FMCSA cannot order the carrier to compensate you. The policy that allowed this was cancelled in 2020.

FMCSA cannot assess civil penalties against the carrier through its own proceedings. The Riojas decision removed this authority in 2019.

FMCSA can refer the case to the Department of Justice for court-imposed penalties. According to FMCSA's own data reported to Newsweek, the agency has worked with DOJ to bring only 13 criminal cases and 6 civil cases against movers since January 1, 2017.

Congress created a remedy in 2012 (MAP-21, Section 32922) that allows the Secretary of Transportation to order carriers to return goods held hostage (49 USC 14915(a)). FMCSA has not published rules implementing this process.

The Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 880 / S. 337), if passed, would restore FMCSA's civil penalty authority for hostage loads and other consumer protection violations. It has bipartisan support from members including Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton but has not advanced through committee.

Until the law changes, consumers whose belongings are held hostage have two practical remedies: credit card chargebacks (if they paid by card) and state court litigation (if they can afford it). The federal remedy that existed from 2015 to 2020 is gone.