---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 44102"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "44102"
heading: "Financial responsibility to indemnify passengers for nonperformance of transportation"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/44102"
units:
  - "Subtitle IV — Regulation of Ocean Shipping"
  - "Part C — Miscellaneous"
  - "Chapter 441 — Evidence of Financial Responsibility for Passenger Transportation"
---

# §44102. Financial responsibility to indemnify passengers for nonperformance of transportation

- (a) **Filing Requirement.—** A person in the United States may not arrange, offer, advertise, or provide transportation on a vessel to which this chapter applies unless the person has filed with the Federal Maritime [Commission](/usc/46/42501.md?p=1) evidence of financial responsibility to indemnify passengers for nonperformance of the transportation.
- (b) **Satisfactory Evidence.—** To satisfy [subsection (a)](#a), a person must file—
  - (1) information the [Commission](/usc/46/42501.md?p=1) considers necessary; or
  - (2) a copy of a bond or other security, in such form as the [Commission](/usc/46/42501.md?p=1) by regulation may require.
- (c) **Authorized Issuer of Bond.—** If a bond is filed, it must be issued by a bonding company authorized to do business in the United States.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 109–304, § 7, Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1554.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 44102 | 46 App.:817e(a) (1st–14th, 37th–last words), (b). | Pub. L. 89–777, § 3(a) (1st–14th, 37th–last words), (b), Nov. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 1357; Pub. L. 103–206, title III, § 320, Dec. 20, 1993, 107 Stat. 2427. |

In subsection (c), the words “or any State thereof, or the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands or any territory or possession of the United States” are omitted as unnecessary because of the definition of “United States” in chapter 1 of the revised title.