Judge Orders Government to Begin Refunding More Than $130 Billion in Tariffs
More than 2,000 lawsuits have been filed by companies in the court seeking to recoup their money after Supreme Court invalidated tariffs last month
By Lydia Wheeler, James Fanelli and Louise Radnofsky, The Wall Street Journal, Updated March 4, 2026
A federal trade-court judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to start refunding the more than $130 billion it collected in the global tariffs invalidated by the Supreme Court last month. …
More than 2,000 lawsuits have been filed by companies—including big names such as Costco Wholesale, FedEx and Pandora Jewelry—seeking to recoup their money.
The judge’s order requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds by recalculating the initial duties importers paid, excluding the tariffs voided by the high court. Eaton also said the court’s chief judge indicated he will be in charge of settling the refund litigation…
The Justice Department lawyer, Claudia Burke, said that any refund process would be time-consuming for the tariff collector, CBP. The government agency would have to manually go through millions of import entries… [end quote]
The Trump administration will appeal and will doubtless fight actual refunds tooth and nail. That will layer additional costs onto the tariff refunds.
Wendy