The shipping line is holding and penalising your lithium battery container

The case, in five lines

What is brought

Defence against the lien and the penalty (payment under protest or security, opposition before the notary, review of the general average bond and adjustment) and a cargo damage claim against the shipping line, with recourse against the Chinese supplier that shipped or packed the goods wrongly (arts. 232, 237, 260, 352 and 515 of Spain's Maritime Navigation Act; arts. 35 and 74 of the Vienna Convention, CISG).

Before which court

Against the shipping line, the Sección de lo Mercantil del Tribunal de Instancia (the commercial section of the court of first instance), whatever the amount (art. 87(6)(a) of the Organic Law on the Judiciary); the notary chosen for the deposit and sale of the cargo and for the general average adjustment. Against the Chinese supplier, the arbitral tribunal or the courts designated in the sale contract.

Deadline

Notice of loss or damage: the working day after delivery if the damage is apparent, three working days if it is not and ten for delay (art. 285). Before the notary: opposition on the spot or within 48 hours and a claim within twenty days, thirty before a foreign court (arts. 514 and 515). Against the shipping line, a one-year time bar (caducidad) for international carriage under the Hague-Visby Rules (Supreme Court judgment 173/2026), suspended by a request to negotiate; a one-year limitation period for domestic carriage (art. 286). Insurance: seven days to report the loss and two years to claim (arts. 426 and 438).

Who can bring it

Against the shipping line, standing lies with the consignee or lawful holder of the bill of lading, against the contractual carrier, including a freight forwarder that undertook the carriage, and against the actual carrier, the shipowner (art. 278). Towards the shipping line, liability for misdeclared goods lies with the shipper or the charterer, which may be you if you booked the freight. Against the Chinese supplier, the buyer under the sale contract.

Financial risk

If you booked the carriage, liability under art. 232(2) is yours, including damage to the vessel and to other cargo, and if the danger arose from that fault, the whole of the general average (art. 351), which your insurance may not cover if the damage stems from the inherent vice of the batteries (art. 420). Letting the year run out closes the claim against the shipping line. And collecting from the Chinese supplier means enforcing where it has assets: nobody can promise you the outcome.

Who answers to the shipping line: whoever declared the cargo

The rule is in art. 232 of Spain's Maritime Navigation Act (Ley de Navegación Marítima): dangerous goods may not be shipped without first declaring their nature to the carrier and obtaining its consent, and the shipper must mark and label them according to the rules for their class. Lithium batteries are dangerous goods: they fall in class 9 of the IMDG Code (International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code), which is mandatory under art. 15(1) of that Act and chapter VII of the SOLAS Convention. If they are shipped undeclared, the charterer is liable to the carrier and to the other shippers for all loss and damage, and the shipping line may at any time unload, destroy or render the cargo harmless without paying compensation (art. 232(2)).

The question that decides your case is who the shipper or charterer was. The description of the goods in the bill of lading is made by the shipper, and if they are dangerous this must be stated prominently (art. 248). The shipping line has a claim against the shipper for loss caused by inaccurate declarations (art. 260). Who stands in that position depends on who contracted the carriage and who signed the dangerous goods declaration, not only on the Incoterm: if your Chinese supplier sold with freight included and booked the vessel itself, the shipper is usually the supplier; if you booked the freight, or a freight forwarder did so on your behalf, you are the charterer, even though the factory packed and labelled the batteries.

What nobody tells you is that this allocation cannot be fixed afterwards with an email. If the contract of carriage is yours, the shipping line will direct its claim at you, and you will have to pass it on to the supplier under the sale contract. If it is the supplier's, you are the consignee or holder of the bill of lading, and much of what you are being invoiced has no legal basis against you. That is why the first thing we do is read both sides of the bill of lading, the booking and the dangerous goods declaration, and establish who was who before you pay or sign anything.

What the IMDG Code requires of a lithium battery at sea

Amendment 42-24 of the IMDG Code has been mandatory since 1 January 2026. Lithium metal batteries travel under UN numbers 3090 and 3091 (contained in or packed with equipment), lithium-ion batteries under 3480 and 3481, and those installed in a cargo transport unit under 3536; sodium-ion batteries now have their own entries, UN 3551 and 3552. A robot or a piece of equipment with its battery inside still carries dangerous goods: if it is self-propelled apparatus designed to carry persons or goods, such as a mobile warehouse robot that moves loads, the Code treats it as a vehicle and it goes under UN 3556 (lithium-ion) or 3557 (lithium metal); otherwise, under the entry for batteries contained in equipment (UN 3481 or 3091). And each type of cell or battery must have passed the tests in sub-section 38.3 of the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria.

Special provision 188 takes small cells and batteries out of the rest of the Code: up to 20 Wh per cell and 100 Wh per battery for lithium-ion, or 1 and 2 grams of lithium for lithium metal, provided they also meet its eight conditions, among them the 38.3 test, the Wh rating marked on the casing, packaging that protects against short circuits, the battery mark on the package, a 1.2 metre drop without damage and a maximum of 30 kg per package, with exceptions for those contained in equipment. Meeting it does not turn the battery into non-dangerous goods: it remains class 9, merely exempt from the rest of the Code. That is why the actual Wh figure on the data sheet decides whether it qualifies.

What nobody tells you: the IMDG Code in force sets no state-of-charge limit for lithium-ion batteries carried by sea (UN 3480). If the shipping line demands a charge percentage, that is a condition of its contract or its policy, not of the Code, and it is argued with that contract in hand. To check everything before the container leaves, the firm works with partners with offices in China and with expert engineers in Spain and in China: at origin, before shipment, they review the UN classification, the 38.3 test report, the Wh and grams of lithium, the packaging, the marks and the labels, and they photograph the stuffing of the container. We do not guarantee the outcome of the inspection, but we do make sure you know what is being shipped before you pay the balance.

Why the line may hold the container, and why it may not

The shipping line may hold the goods until it is paid the freight, demurrage and other costs of their carriage (arts. 236 and 237). The Act ties this to that carriage: it cannot hold your container over invoices from earlier shipments. Against a consignee who is not the charterer it cannot exercise the lien at all, unless the bill of lading states that freight is payable at destination (art. 237(1)). Demurrage in the Act means the vessel's; the container demurrage or detention charged by shipping lines comes from their tariffs and the contract, and whether it counts as a cost of carriage for lien purposes is open to argument. The port terminal may also hold goods for its own services, and the road haulier taking them to your warehouse may refuse delivery if the price is not paid or secured, but must apply for deposit within ten days (art. 40 of Law 15/2009 on land carriage).

If you do not pay, the shipping line may ask a notary for the deposit and sale of the goods. The notary demands payment from you and, if you neither pay nor give sufficient security on the spot or within the following 48 hours, orders the deposit and then the valuation and sale (art. 514). If you object within that period, the balance of the sale proceeds stays on deposit pending the court's decision, and you have twenty days from the objection to sue before a Spanish court, thirty before a foreign one; if you do not, the balance goes to the shipping line (art. 515(1)). Security avoids or lifts the deposit, but the twenty days run from when it is given (art. 515(2)). In practice, what releases the cargo quickly is paying what is genuinely owed with a written reservation of the right to claim it back, or giving security, and arguing about the rest afterwards.

General average gives rise to a different lien: if the shipping line declared it because of a fire or another peril common to the voyage, the shipowner may hold the cargo, on board or ashore, until the parties concerned give sufficient security and sign a general average bond listing the goods and their value (art. 352). Your cargo insurance covers by law your share of the general average contribution (art. 430(1)(a)), so the first step is to report the loss to the insurer within seven days of learning of it (art. 426) and agree with it how the security will be provided. An adjustment made privately does not bind you unless agreed and can be challenged in court (art. 353); if it is requested before a notary, the adjuster has up to four months and the parties thirty days to challenge it.

The misdeclaration penalty is a contract term, not a fine

The sum claimed from you for ‘undeclared dangerous goods’ is not a public fine: it comes from the shipping line's standard terms or tariffs. The bill of lading may contain terms validly agreed between shipper and carrier (art. 248(2)), so against a shipper that accepted them they carry the weight of a contract. Against you, if you were neither the shipper nor the charterer, enforcing them is open to argument: the Act gives the shipping line a damages claim against the shipper (art. 260) and against the charterer (art. 232(2)), and the lien does not apply against a consignee who is not the charterer unless freight is payable at destination (art. 237(1)). No statute or judgment settles the point; it is an argument, and a weighty one, for negotiation.

Actual damage is a different matter. If the undeclared cargo starts a fire, damages the vessel or other cargo, or has to be unloaded, the party liable under art. 232(2) answers for all of it, and cargo that is unloaded or destroyed is not compensated. Even if the declaration was correct, goods that become a real danger may also be unloaded or destroyed without compensation, unless the carrier caused the danger or the loss is allowed in general average (art. 232(3)). And if goods of a different kind from those contracted were shipped without notice, art. 231 gives the same outcome: the charterer is liable and the shipping line may unload them to avoid serious harm.

What nobody tells you is what happens to general average when the fault lies with a misdeclared or badly packed battery. The general rule is that ship and cargo contribute in proportion to the value saved (art. 349), but if the danger arose from the fault of one of the parties, the Maritime Navigation Act puts all the loss and expense on that party and the others do not contribute (art. 351). Where the contract or the general average bond refers to the York-Antwerp Rules without saying which version, the latest applies, and where no rules were chosen, the Act governs (art. 356); the Rules' approach to fault may not match the Act's. Moreover, your cargo insurance excludes by law the inherent vice or intrinsic nature of the goods (art. 420): a defective battery may be left uninsured.

If the cargo arrives damaged: notice, limits and a year that will not stop

If the shipping line delivers damaged batteries or equipment, written notice to the carrier or its agent has short deadlines: during the working day after delivery if the damage is apparent, within the following three working days if it is not, and within ten working days for delay (art. 285). Without notice, the goods are presumed to have been delivered as described in the bill of lading. Notice is unnecessary if a joint survey is carried out, and for an examination with an expert valuation a notary may be engaged, who appoints the surveyor if the parties do not agree. The contractual carrier, including a freight forwarder that undertook the carriage, and the actual carrier, the shipowner, are jointly and severally liable (art. 278).

The carrier's liability under a bill of lading is governed by the Hague-Visby Rules and by the Act itself (art. 277(2)), with a limit of 666.67 special drawing rights (SDR) per package or 2 SDR per kilo of gross weight, whichever is higher, unless the shipper declared the nature and value before shipment and this is stated in the bill of lading. In a container, each package listed in the bill of lading counts; if they are not listed, the whole container is a single package (art. 282(2)). And the shipping line has its defence ready: the Tribunal Supremo (Spain's Supreme Court) relieves the carrier of liability when the shipper failed to warn of the nature of the goods and chose an unsuitable container or packaging (judgment 1085/2023 of 4 July).

The deadline is what closes most cases. In international carriage under a bill of lading subject to the Hague-Visby Rules, the year to sue the shipping line is a strict time bar (caducidad): a burofax or an out-of-court claim does not interrupt it, it can only be extended by agreement made after the event, and art. 286 of the Act, a limitation period, does not apply, according to the full First Chamber of the Supreme Court (judgment 173/2026 of 5 February). The same judgment accepts that it is suspended by a request to negotiate under art. 7 of Organic Law 1/2025, and the period runs again if within thirty calendar days the first meeting is not held or there is no written reply. If the goods were loaded in China, what matters is whether the bill of lading carries a Paramount clause (judgment 512/2022 of 28 June) or which law it chooses; the prudent course is to count the year as a strict time bar from delivery.

Where to claim and how to pass the cost on to the Chinese supplier

Against the shipping line, the case falls to the Sección de lo Mercantil del Tribunal de Instancia (the commercial section of the court of first instance), whatever the amount (art. 87(6)(a) of the Organic Law on the Judiciary). Without a valid clause, you choose the court of the defendant's domicile, of the place where the contract was concluded or of the port of loading or discharge (art. 469(2)). A printed clause sending you to foreign courts or to arbitration abroad is void if it was not negotiated individually and separately, subject to international conventions and European Union law (art. 468), and it does not bind whoever acquires the bill of lading without that party's consent (art. 251). Before suing, the negotiation required by Organic Law 1/2025 must be attempted, which is not needed to apply for interim measures before the claim (art. 5(3)). The court fee for a company is 300 euros in ordinary proceedings and 150 in the verbal procedure.

Whatever the shipping line charges you because of a battery misdeclared or badly packed at the factory is passed on to the Chinese supplier under the sale contract. Under the Vienna Convention, which governs a sale between a Spanish and a Chinese company unless the contract excludes it, the seller must deliver goods contained or packaged in the manner required by the contract and, failing agreement, in the usual manner for such goods or, where there is none, in a manner adequate to preserve and protect them (art. 35(1) and 35(2)(d)); if the seller booked the carriage and declared the cargo, the breach is its own. The lack of conformity must be notified within a reasonable time, specifying its nature, and at the latest within two years (art. 39), and the claim covers the loss the seller foresaw or ought to have foreseen when contracting (arts. 45 and 74): that is why it matters that it knew the cargo was going by sea as dangerous goods.

The law of the contract sets how long you have to claim: before a Spanish court and without a choice, a sale by a Chinese seller is governed by Chinese law, which allows four years (art. 594 of the Chinese Civil Code); under Spanish law, five (art. 1964(2) of the Spanish Civil Code). Where to sue the supplier and how to enforce in China is covered in "You want to sue your Chinese supplier: arbitration or the courts?", and if the battery causes damage to third parties in Spain, in "Your robot or battery from China caused damage: why you are liable". The clause that would have prevented it: the supplier warrants the UN classification, the 38.3 test and a correct declaration; inspection by our engineers before shipment is a condition for paying the balance; and the supplier indemnifies you for whatever the shipping line claims because of its declaration. In the carriage contract, declare the value and list the packages.

How we run the case, step by step

1. 1

   Establish who was who

   With both sides of the bill of lading, the booking, the dangerous goods declaration and the sale contract, we establish who was the shipper and who the charterer, whether freight is payable at destination, which penalty is being invoked and under which clause, and which law and forum apply.

2. 2

   Release the container without waiving anything

   What genuinely relates to that carriage is paid with a written reservation of the right to claim it back, or security is given. If the shipping line goes to the notary, opposition on the spot or within 48 hours and a claim within twenty days. If there is general average, we review and negotiate the wording of the bond and the security before you sign.

3. 3

   Notice, survey and report to the insurer

   Written notice to the shipping line within the art. 285 deadline, a joint survey or an examination with expert valuation before a notary, and a report of the loss to your insurer within seven days. Our expert engineers in Spain document the condition of the cargo on arrival.

4. 4

   Stop the one-year clock

   We calculate the year from delivery and send the shipping line and the freight forwarder the request to negotiate under Organic Law 1/2025, with its subject matter clearly defined: it suspends the time bar and satisfies the precondition for suing. If within thirty days the first meeting is not held or there is no written reply, the period runs again.

5. 5

   Pass it on to the Chinese supplier

   Notice of the lack of conformity specifying the defect and a claim for the penalty, the demurrage, the contribution and the foreseeable loss (arts. 39 and 74 of the Vienna Convention), with the material gathered by our partners in China: the declaration, the 38.3 test and the photographs of the container stuffing.

6. 6

   Claim or arbitration, and clauses for the next shipment

   Failing agreement, a claim before the Sección de lo Mercantil del Tribunal de Instancia within the year, or a claim against the supplier in the contractual forum. And for future orders we draft the classification and documents warranty, pre-shipment inspection as a condition for paying the balance, and the indemnity for whatever the shipping line claims.

The law that applies

• Arts. 15, 231, 232, 248 y 260 de la Ley 14/2014, de Navegación Marítima. Dangerous goods are carried in accordance with the mandatory codes of the International Maritime Organization. They may not be shipped without declaring their nature to the carrier and obtaining its consent, and must be marked and labelled by the shipper; if shipped undeclared, the charterer is liable for all loss and they may be unloaded, destroyed or rendered harmless without compensation, as may declared goods that become a real danger, unless the carrier is responsible or general average applies. The description in the bill of lading is made by the shipper, and the carrier has a claim against it for inaccurate declarations. BOE-A-2014-7877
• Arts. 236, 237, 514 y 515 de la Ley 14/2014, de Navegación Marítima. The goods are charged with the freight, demurrage and costs of their carriage, and the carrier may hold them until paid, but not against a consignee who is not the charterer unless freight is payable at destination. It may ask a notary for deposit and sale: if the party served neither pays nor gives security on the spot or within 48 hours, the goods are deposited; whoever objects or gives security must sue within twenty days (thirty before a foreign court), counted from the objection or from when the security is given. BOE-A-2014-7877
• Arts. 277, 278, 282 y 285 de la Ley 14/2014, de Navegación Marítima. Carriage under a bill of lading is governed by the 1924 Brussels Convention, its protocols in force for Spain and the Act. The contractual carrier, including a freight forwarder, and the actual carrier are jointly and severally liable. The limit is the Convention's unless the value is declared in the bill of lading, each package listed inside the container counts, and the limit is lost if the damage was caused intentionally or recklessly. Notice is given on the working day after delivery if the damage is apparent, within three working days if it is not and within ten for delay. BOE-A-2014-7877
• Arts. 347, 349, 351, 352, 353 y 355 de la Ley 14/2014, de Navegación Marítima. General average exists when extraordinary damage or expense is intentionally and reasonably incurred to save the property in the voyage from a common peril; it is borne by the interested parties in proportion to the value saved, unless the danger arose from the fault of one of them, who bears it entirely. The shipowner may hold the cargo until it receives sufficient security and the general average bond; a private adjustment does not bind unless agreed, and the right to contribution is time-barred one year after the end of the voyage. BOE-A-2014-7877
• Arts. 420, 426, 430 y 438 de la Ley 14/2014, de Navegación Marítima. Marine insurance excludes damage caused by the inherent vice or intrinsic nature of the insured subject matter. The loss must be reported within seven days of becoming known. The indemnity covers, besides material damage, the general average contribution, the share of salvage and reasonable expenses to reduce the loss. Rights under the contract are time-barred after two years. BOE-A-2014-7877
• Arts. 5 y 7 de la Ley Orgánica 1/2025, de eficiencia del Servicio Público de Justicia. Before suing in civil matters an appropriate dispute resolution method must be tried, which may be direct negotiation or negotiation between lawyers, except for enforcement claims, interim measures before the claim and preliminary inquiries. A request that defines the subject matter interrupts limitation or suspends a time bar from the attempted notification; time runs again if within thirty calendar days the first meeting is not held or there is no written reply; the one year to sue after a negotiation ends without agreement only serves to meet the prior negotiation requirement and does not extend the time limit for the claim. BOE-A-2025-76
• Arts. 35, 39 y 74 de la Convención de Viena de 1980. The seller must deliver goods of the quantity, quality and description agreed, contained or packaged in the manner required by the contract or, failing agreement, in the usual manner or, where there is none, one adequate to preserve and protect them. Lack of conformity must be notified within a reasonable time after it was or ought to have been discovered, specifying its nature, and at the latest within two years of actual handover. Damages cover the loss suffered and the profit lost that the party in breach foresaw or ought to have foreseen when contracting. BOE-A-1991-2552
• Art. 87.6.a de la Ley Orgánica 6/1985, del Poder Judicial. The commercial sections of the courts of first instance hear, among other civil matters, intellectual and industrial property, national or international land carriage, and maritime and air law. BOE-A-1985-12666

Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).

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