Some five months after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s tariffs, one question remains: How—and when—will the government return the refunds?
With thousands of companies embroiled in complicated suits against the federal government, consumers are focused something far simpler: When will these companies return their refunds?
Dating back to the White House’s self-proclaimed “Liberation Day” of 2025, consumers have paid higher prices on everything from furniture to flip flops. Even the most expensive electronic goods weren’t spared; only for consumers to be told now, by some companies like Nintendo, that since they agreed to higher prices, they are not entitled to refunds, according to NBC News.
Costco has been one of a handful of companies that has said it will return U.S. tariff refunds to members “in some form.” What exactly that means has yet to be ironed out.
Fast Company has reached out to Costco for more details on its plan, and will update this story with any further information.
The comments come at the same time the warehouse club retail giant is facing a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. from customers, which seeks to force the retailer to pass along any refund it gets from the government.
In that lawsuit, attorneys for Costco have emphasized the purportedly speculative nature of the lawsuit against it. In plain English, Costco maintains that the plaintiff was not entitled to lower costs, accusing him of attacking a “strawman”—that is to say, the Administration’s faith in the emancipatory quality of tariffs.
In its defense, Costco is arguing it doesn’t have to pay back the tariffs because the impact of the tariffs is speculative—but it also points to members of the class action lawsuit, arguing that no one was forcing them to buy Costco products, even under purportedly tariff-inflated prices.
To date, Apple, Nike, and FedEx are among the 40 S&P 500 companies that the government has reimbursed, to the tune of some $9.6 billion in refunds this past quarter—some of which they have started to pass on to customers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple alone has received nearly $2.2 billion, the Journal reported.
