Businesses Receive Refunds for Illegal Tariffs; Consumers May Benefit

Businesses are beginning to receive refunds for tariffs that were deemed illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency is responsible for issuing these refunds, but can only send them to the importer of record, the entity that initially paid the tariffs.

Companies that receive these refunds, stemming from tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), have the option to keep the money or share it with consumers. To date, the U.S. government has refunded over $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs to businesses, representing about 60% of the total owed, according to a recent court filing.

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There's no way for consumers to get money from customs. If they get them at all, it's directly from carriers who decide to send them refunds.

While businesses are not legally required to pass these refunds to customers, some have pledged to do so, especially when the tariff cost can be clearly separated from an item's overall price. Shipping giants UPS, FedEx, and DHL have all committed to distributing refunds to their customers as they receive payments from the federal government. Amazon also stated it would proactively contact and refund affected customers in specific circumstances where import charges can be traced back to them.

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identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we pass specific import charges on to customers. In those cases, Amazon "will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them."