Finance13 August, 20263 min read
FedEx And UPS Start Passing Tariff Refunds To Customers After Supreme Court Ruling
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FedEx and UPS are passing government tariff refunds to customers who paid them. DHL is also distributing refunds to customers who paid the tariffs.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Refunds via Shippers
If you bought something from an overseas vendor last year, it might be time to check your bank account as shippers including FedEx and UPS that acted as customs brokers for imported packages have started to pass on tariff refunds to customers.
“The court ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected.”
The refunds are the last step in a monthslong process that kicked off in February when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump in March 2025 under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected.
So far, about $100 billion in tariffs have been refunded to companies who paid them under a system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the refunds are being rolled out in phases based on what date they were paid.
FedEx said it has begun the process of issuing $800 million in tariff refunds it received from the government back to the customers that paid them, and customers can enter tracking numbers into a portal on the FedEx website to see whether they are due a refund.
Retailers, Amazon, and Timing
UPS said in April it had paid $5 billion in tariffs on behalf of clients and would begin the process of applying to the government for refunds, with its first phase applying for $500 million and customers expected to receive refunds one to three months after it receives reimbursement from the Treasury.
DHL similarly said it has filed claims for almost all eligible shipments where it served as the importer of record and is returning the refunds it has received, with the pace dependent on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s processing of claims.
Amazon executives said last week the company received $600 million in tariff refunds in the second quarter, and Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company isn’t the importer of record on most of the goods it sells and that it has absorbed some tariff costs.
In the limited circumstances where Olsavsky said the company can trace that it passes specific import charges on to customers, he said, "we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them."
Otherwise, he said, Amazon will use tariff refunds to lower prices for customers, while Cori Barrie said Best Buy is an importer of record of only about 2% to 3% of what it sells and would use any refund it gets to "deliver value back to our customers."
Lawsuits and What’s at Risk
More than 80 class-action lawsuits have been filed by customers across the country against retailers including Costco, Nike, Amazon, Walmart and others, seeking refunds for tariff-related price increases. Lori Leskin, partner and co-chair of law firm Arnold & Porter’s Consumer Products Practice Group, said the lawsuits will face difficulty because plaintiffs will have to prove they paid for price increases that were specifically tied to the tariffs, and she said, "It's going to be very hard for anyone to establish that the price increase they paid was due to tariffs."
None of the lawsuits have yet been certified as class action, which would mean they apply to all customers, and Leskin added, "Most of them are just talking about price increases,". Costco CEO Ron Vachris said the company planned to return "in some form" the tariffs that were passed on to consumers, and he said, "How much we return and when depends on a variety of factors" including developments in the lawsuit filed against the company regarding the return process.