NEW YORK (AP) — If you bought something from a foreign supplier last year, it might be time to check your bank account. Carriers, including FedEx and UPS, that acted as customs brokers for imported packages and received tariff refunds from the U.S. government have begun transferring those refunds to customers who originally paid the tariffs. The refunds to consumers are the latest step in a months-long process that began in February when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump in March 2025 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 on goods from nearly all countries. The court ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected. So far, about $100 billion in tariffs have been refunded to companies that paid them under a system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That doesn’t mean Americans get anywhere close to what they paid in tariffs, since most were paid indirectly. In 2025, Trump’s tariffs were equivalent to an average tax increase of $1,000 per American household, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., group that studies taxes. But some consumers are getting some of what they paid directly from carriers, including UPS, DHL and FedEx. Refunds are being rolled out in phases based on the date they were paid. Carriers have said they will return refunds on an ongoing basis as they receive them. Carrier fee refunds will be refunded directly to credit cards or bank accounts. Most large foreign retailers paid the tariffs themselves and passed them on to retailers with a line item on their invoice that formed part of the total bill, or indirectly by increasing prices. But some smaller sellers let the tariff be paid when it arrived in the United States. In those cases, the carriers paid the invoice and charged the recipient of the package. FedEx said it has begun the process of issuing $800 million in refunds of fees it received from the government to customers who paid them. Customers do not need to submit a request to receive their refund, but they can enter the tracking numbers of purchased items into a portal on the FedEx website to see whether or not they are owed a refund. UPS said in April that it had paid $5 billion in tariffs on behalf of customers and would begin the process of seeking refunds from the government. In the first phase, it requested $500 million in refunds and said customers should receive refunds one to three months after receiving the Treasury refund. DHL similarly said it has filed claims for nearly all eligible shipments for which it acted as importer of record and is returning any refunds it received. “The volume and pace of refunds remains dependent on CBP’s processing of claims,” DHL said in a statement. Major retailers say they may give back some rebates, but will mostly use them to lower prices. Unlike carriers that collected fees directly from customers, most large retailers passed on tariffs indirectly, changing their product lines or partially absorbing higher costs, making a refund to the consumer unlikely. Amazon executives said last week that the company received $600 million in fee refunds in the second quarter. Subscribe to Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the day’s biggest headlines. In a call with investors, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said the company is not the importer of record for most of the products it sells and has absorbed some tariff costs. But he said the company has “identified a limited set of circumstances in which we can trace that we passed specific import charges to customers.” In those circumstances, he added, “we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds.” Otherwise, he said, Amazon will use fee refunds to lower prices for customers. This echoes what other large retailers have said. In May, Cori Barrie, the outgoing CEO of Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, said the retailer is a registered importer of only about 2% to 3% of what it sells and that the company would use any rebates it gets to “return value to our customers.” And Costco CEO Ron Vachris said the company planned to return “somehow” the fees that were passed along to consumers. refund the money we receive and when it arrives, as well as the evolution of the lawsuit filed against the company with respect to the refund process,” he said on a quarterly earnings call in May. Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed. Some shoppers are suing to recover from companies the fees they paid in the form of higher prices. Customers across the country have filed more than 80 class-action lawsuits against retailers such as Costco, Nike, Amazon, Walmart and others. The lawsuits will face difficulties because the plaintiffs will have to prove they paid increases in prices that were specifically tied to tariffs, according to Lori Leskin, partner and co-chair of the Consumer Products Practice Group at law firm Arnold & Porter. None of the lawsuits have yet been certified as class actions, which would mean they apply to all customers. “It’s going to be very difficult for anyone to establish that the price increase they paid was due to tariffs and not some other market force,” she said. “Most of them are just talking about price increases, and it’s going to be really difficult to track an increase. due to a single factor, given the multi-factor approach that most companies take.
