Despite Trump administration’s efforts to limit tariff refunds, American importers are one step closer to receiving $166 billion in universal rebates

Detailed summary

Class counsel in Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States filed a relief motion that would automatically return money collected from the levies to all eligible importers.

U.S. importers could be one step closer to automatically receiving all of the $166 billion in tariff refunds following the Supreme Court’s ruling against the levies imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Class counsel in a tariff refund class action against the Trump administration filed a motion in the U.S. Court of International Trade to enter a relief order on Tuesday, which would return money collected from the tariffs to the more than 330,000 importers of record, whether or not they filed an individual lawsuit against the administration. The Trump administration is fighting for only importers who sued for the refunds to receive them.

“The proposed order would give the agency the authority it says it needs to provide full refunds with interest to all class members, including the tens of thousands of small businesses who lack the resources to bring their own cases,” class counsel co-leads Lawrence Friedman, partner at Barnes, Richardson & Colburn; and Elizabeth Cabraser and Nicholas Diamand, partners at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; told Fortune in a statement. “We will continue working closely with the Court and the government to make sure all importers who paid these unlawful tariffs receive the refunds they are owed as quickly as possible.”

Tariffs became a flashpoint in the ongoing affordability crisis, which cost Republicans in the midterm elections, and refunds would not only relieve financial pressures on companies that have raised prices to offset inflation from the import taxes and the Iran war, but also increase the likelihood of American consumers seeing their own refunds in the form of payments from companies.

The Supreme Court’s February ruling that tariffs imposed under IEEPA exceeded the president’s powers, paved the way for hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff refunds to U.S. importers who footed the bill for the levies.

This class action, Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States, aims to open up a pathway for…

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