Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, on Friday sent letters to Apple, Amazon, Energizer, Motorola, Nike, Target and Walmart seeking information about the size of the refunds they are receiving for import duties the companies paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). In February, the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs were invalid because President Trump lacked the authority to impose them.
Warren also urged the companies to pass the refunds to consumers, saying in the letter that customers “paid higher prices for your products while the tariffs were in place.”
The U.S. government has refunded more than $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs to businesses, or about 60% of what it owes importers, according to a court filing this week. Yet many consumers, who footed some of the bill for those import duties in the form of higher prices, aren’t seeing similar relief, according to Warren.
“Importers pushed the costs of tariffs onto American consumers and small businesses — with estimates showing that American families will have ended up paying 95% of the tariffs,” she wrote, citing data from the Congressional Budget Office.
“But American families have no recourse for the increased prices they paid,” she added.
Warren is asking the companies to disclose how much they have paid in unconstitutional IEEPA tariffs, the amounts of any refunds they have received or expect to receive, and how they plan to spend the money.
None of the companies singled out by Warren immediately responded to a request for comment.
Refunds might not go to “who paid it”
Thousands of companies, from giant retailers to small businesses, are collecting IEEPA tariff refunds. Amazon, for example, said it has received $600 million in refunds for the levies.
Apple received a $2.2 billion tariff refund, according to its third-quarter earnings report, Warren said, noting that the company raised prices on its iPhone and MacBook products this year.
“You have received an astronomical cash infusion in the form of a tariff refund, and Apple customers who paid increased prices for your products, ostensibly due to tariffs, deserve to know how that money will be spent,” Warren said in her letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Nick Baker, a trade compliance expert and co-lead of trade and customs at risk advisory firm Kroll, said that IEEPA refunds go only to the importer that paid them, leaving consumers with little recourse.
“So if and when there is a refund, it might not get to the person who paid it,” he said. “Which is the gripe of a lot of consumers. They have seen prices fluctuate and go up, with some retailers saying it’s in part due to tariffs.”
That’s leading to a wave of class-action lawsuits from consumers suing corporations for refunds of the tariff surcharges.
Nike customers have sued the sportswear company to recoup some of what they paid due to higher prices, alleging that the company “stands to recover the same tariff payments twice — once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds.”
Sharing the money
Some companies have pledged to return any refunds they receive from the federal government to consumers. Other businesses insist they absorbed the cost of tariffs themselves.
Amazon said it would automatically reimburse some customers only under a “limited set of circumstances.”
“In cases where we did see an increase in costs due to tariffs, we largely absorbed those costs rather than pass them on to customers,” the company’s chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on July 30.
Other big companies that received sizable tariff refunds have vowed to share part of the money with customers. For example, FedEx has launched an IEEPA tariff refund portal where customers can track shipments to determine whether they’re eligible for a refund from the shipper.
UPS also pledged to automatically refund customers when applicable.
“UPS says refunds are automatic, and we’ll issue it to the original payment method. No customer action is required,” Barry Appleton, co-director of the Center for International Law at New York Law School, told CBS News.
Katelyn Hifferty, leader of Morgan Lewis’ international trade and national security practice, told CBS News that in most cases it’s up to the company whether to share tariff refunds with customers.
“Part of what’s inherently difficult in some of these suits is that a lot of this information is not public. So you don’t know if this company obtained a refund or not, and unless the tariffs were explicitly listed as a line item, you don’t know why the company raised prices,” she said. “Right now, it’s a little unclear what the chances of success are.”
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