US companies are getting billions back from invalidated Trump tariffs, and they’re being creative about it

In February 2026, the Supreme Court handed US importers one of the most consequential trade rulings in decades. The court voted 6-3 that President Trump’s tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, were unconstitutional. The logic was straightforward: taxing authority belongs to Congress, not the executive branch. The federal government’s total exposure from the invalidated tariffs sits somewhere between $166 billion and $175 billion, based on data from Customs and Border Protection and projections from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Who’s getting what Amazon reported receiving approximately $600 million in tariff refunds in the second quarter of 2026 alone. Williams-Sonoma collected $200 million in total refunds and chose to direct $10 million of that toward employee pension contributions. Shipping giants FedEx, UPS, and DHL are pursuing their own refund claims, each promising to pass the benefits along to customers. That last part is where things get complicated. All three carriers are facing lawsuits from consumers and plaintiffs who argue the companies should be legally required to return the money to the people who actually paid the surcharges at t...