Case Filed in 2011 by Italian Motorcycle Gear Exporter Finally Gets Complaint

Alpinestars, an Italian exporter of motorcycle safety apparel, brought a short complaint to the Court of International Trade on April 18 (Alpinestars, SPA v. U.S., CIT # 11-00007).

In the complaint, which was filed more than 13 years after Alpinestars’ original 2011 summons, the exporter explained that it purchased merchandise from three vendors located in China and Thailand to resell to its U.S. customers. It said it set its customers’ prices based on the delivered duty-paid price of the products. It then had the products sent directly to its U.S. customers from those vendors.

But CBP, when it liquidated the exporter’s entries on the basis of transaction value at the delivered duty-paid prices, did so incorrectly, Alpinestars alleged. It asked CIT to overrule CBP’s liquidation.

Alpinestars submitted consent motions for extensions of time on its summons starting in 2011. In 2016, Judge Thomas Aquilino was assigned the case. Joint status reports were then filed every three months from November 2016 until a Feb. 6, 2024, order by Aquilino required the company to report on why its action shouldn’t be dismissed from his calendar for lack of prosecution.

This case is one of several filed by Alpinestars between 2009 and 2011 that haven’t seen prosecution, although no action appears to have been taken on the others.