Amazon sued for keeping tariff-driven price hikes after courts struck down the tariffs
Amazon is facing a federal class-action lawsuit over tariff-related price increases it allegedly never reversed. Filed on May 17 in Seattle's Western District federal court, the suit claims Amazon raised prices to offset Trump administration tariffs, collected what plaintiffs call "hundreds of millions of dollars" from customers, and has made no move to return that money. The lawsuit arrives months after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs in question — making the retained charges, in the plaintiffs' view, unlawful profit.
The legal claim
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in February 2026 that the Trump administration's IEEPA tariffs were unconstitutional, per CNBC. That opened a refund window: nearly 2,000 companies have since filed claims with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Amazon has not filed one. The lawsuit alleges unjust enrichment and a violation of Washington state consumer-protection law, arguing that customers who paid inflated prices are owed their money back — even though only businesses, not individual shoppers, can apply directly to the government for tariff refunds.
Amazon denies the core allegation, saying it never listed tariff costs as a separate line item on its main retail site. But the plaintiffs point to a telling episode from April 2025: Amazon had reportedly planned to display tariff surcharges at checkout, only to abandon the idea after the White House objected and President Trump called CEO Andy Jassy to complain. The lawsuit cites this as evidence that the company chose political goodwill over consumer reimbursement.
Who is and isn't refunding
The contrast with other companies is stark. Shipping giants DHL, FedEx, and UPS have all announced refund procedures for customers who paid tariff-related surcharges, reports Reuters. Nintendo filed a separate lawsuit against the U.S. government to recover import tariff costs. Amazon is not alone in facing consumer pressure — Nike and Costco have also been sued for refusing to pass refunds back to shoppers — but the scale of Amazon's marketplace makes its inaction particularly visible.
What happens next
The lawsuit does not yet specify a dollar amount in damages. For now, Amazon customers have no automatic path to a refund; the class action, if successful, would be the mechanism. The case will likely take months to move through federal court, and Amazon is expected to contest it vigorously. Whether the court accepts the Washington consumer-protection framing — that Amazon's pricing conduct harmed state residents — will be the early legal test to watch.