Amazon Sued Over Refusal to Refund Trump Tariff Costs to Consumers

Amazon.com Inc was sued on Friday by consumers seeking refunds for costs allegedly passed on to them through higher prices resulting from tariffs that the US Supreme Court later ruled had been unlawfully imposed by President Donald Trump.

Consumers in a proposed class action filed in federal court in Seattle alleged that the e-commerce giant collected hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful tariff-related costs by increasing prices on imported goods before the Supreme Court issued its ruling.

In February, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump had exceeded his authority by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs.

Following the ruling, thousands of companies began seeking billions of dollars in refunds from the government.

However, Amazon has not done so, with the lawsuit alleging that this was “not because it lacks a legal basis to do so, but because it seeks to curry favour with Trump by allowing the federal government to retain the funds”.

“The problem is that the funds Amazon is using to stay in the President’s good graces do not belong to Amazon,” the lawsuit stated. “These funds were wrongfully taken from consumers to cover IEEPA tariffs that have since been invalidated.”

The lawsuit includes claims of unjust enrichment and violations of Washington state’s consumer protection law.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case follows several earlier lawsuits filed by consumers accusing companies including Costco, Nike and FedEx of failing to pass on tariff refunds to consumers.

Unlike companies that imported goods, consumers are not eligible to seek tariff refunds directly from the government for the higher costs they incurred while the tariffs were in effect, the lawsuit noted.

To support its claim that politics influenced Amazon’s actions, the lawsuit pointed to reports from April 2025 that the company had considered displaying how much of a product’s cost was linked to IEEPA tariffs.

Amazon denied the report and said it had never considered listing tariff-related charges on its main retail site. However, the report allegedly prompted Trump to call Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos to complain, according to the lawsuit.

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