Overview
- The refunds follow the Supreme Court’s February ruling that struck down broad 2025 import tariffs and ordered the government to return duties, a process CBP and Treasury have been executing through a new portal.
- FedEx told customers it has begun disbursing roughly $800 million in government refunds and is crediting cards or bank accounts for eligible shipments without requiring applications.
- UPS said it paid about $5 billion in duties on customers’ behalf, applied for an initial $500 million reimbursement and will issue refunds one to three months after it receives Treasury payments; DHL has filed claims and is returning funds it has received.
- Most large retailers, including Amazon which reported $600 million in receipts, say they rarely acted as the importer of record and plan to use refunds to lower prices or issue only narrowly traceable refunds rather than broad payouts.
- More than 80 consumer class actions seek to recover tariff-related price increases but legal experts say plaintiffs will face steep hurdles proving that specific price rises were caused by the tariffs rather than other market forces, and many households will not recover indirect costs estimated at about $1,000 each in 2025.