Costco’s Trump Tariffs Lawsuit: Refunds and Consumer Class Actions

Costco’s tariff lawsuit is a case the retailer filed against the U.S. government on November 28, 2025, seeking a full refund of the import duties it paid under President Trump’s executive orders that used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs.¹ The Supreme Court ruled those tariffs illegal on February 20, 2026, which vindicated Costco’s core argument, but the refund process has been slow and Costco now faces two consumer class actions from shoppers who say they, not Costco, ultimately paid the tariff and deserve a cut of anything the company recovers.²

What Costco Sued Over

Costco filed Case No. 1:25-cv-00316 in the U.S. Court of International Trade, the specialized federal court that handles customs disputes. The complaint asked the court to declare the IEEPA tariffs unlawful, to stop Customs and Border Protection from collecting more of them, and to refund every dollar Costco had already paid.³ Three days later, on December 1, 2025, Costco asked to consolidate its case with the many other pending importer lawsuits challenging the same tariffs.⁴

The company’s argument was that the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose duties on imports, and that IEEPA, which lets a president “regulate” importation during a declared emergency, says nothing about tariffs, duties, or taxes.¹ Costco also flagged a practical concern: CBP was finalizing customs entries as it went, which could permanently lock in the duties and make refunds much harder to recover if the tariffs were later struck down.³ Filing suit was in part a protective move to preserve the company’s refund rights.

Costco’s case was merged into a lead consolidated action, AGS Company Automotive Solutions v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Case No. 1:25-cv-00255, which grew to encompass 58 importer lawsuits before Judge Richard K. Eaton and a three-judge panel. The consolidated case remained active into early June 2026.⁵

The Supreme Court Struck Down the Tariffs

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court settled the underlying question in a 6-3 decision. In the consolidated cases Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs. The opinion leaned on the major questions doctrine, which requires Congress to speak clearly when it hands the executive branch authority of enormous economic significance, and noted that in nearly 50 years no president had read IEEPA to include tariff-setting power.⁶ Justices Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Jackson joined the core holding. Justice Kavanaugh, in dissent, warned that the ruling could force the government to refund billions and raised what he called the “pass-through problem”: whether importers who had already recouped tariff costs from consumers should be allowed to keep the refunds. The majority did not address refund mechanics, leaving those questions to the lower courts.²

Has Costco Actually Gotten Its Money Back?

Not yet, at least not as of the most recent public statements. The government collected roughly $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs, and untangling that has been slow.⁷

On March 4, 2026, Judge Eaton ordered CBP to process refunds for pending entries without IEEPA duties and to reliquidate entries that were not yet final. He ruled that the order applied to all importers, not just those who had sued.⁸ CBP built a new online system called CAPE to handle claims, which launched on April 20, 2026.⁹ By early June 2026, CBP had accepted claims covering about $90 billion of the $166 billion collected, and roughly $23 billion had been approved and sent to Treasury for payment, with projections above $40 billion paid out by the end of June.¹⁰ Costco reported in May 2026 that it had not yet received any refund payments.

The Department of Justice is also fighting the scope of the refund. On June 3, 2026, DOJ appealed Judge Eaton’s universal refund order to the Federal Circuit, arguing that under a 2025 Supreme Court decision, Trump v. CASA, Inc., only the roughly 4,000 importers who filed their own protective lawsuits should get refunds for entries finalized more than 80 days ago. That position, if it prevails, would leave an estimated $30 billion or more in dispute.¹¹ Because Costco is one of the importers that sued, it sits on the safer side of that fight. Tension between the bench and the government grew sharp enough that on May 27, 2026, Judge Eaton ordered CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott to appear personally to explain the pace of compliance and refused to accept a lower-ranking substitute.¹²

What Costco Says It Will Do With a Refund

On Costco’s March 5, 2026, earnings call, roughly two weeks after the Supreme Court ruling, CEO Ron Vachris said “it is not yet clear what the process will be, what refunds, if any, will be received, and when this will happen.” He pledged that if Costco recovers costs it had passed on to members, “our commitment will be to find the best way to return this value to our members through lower prices and better values.”¹³

During the tariff period itself, Costco had tried to hold prices, pulling forward shipments to beat tariff deadlines, shifting production for its Kirkland Signature private-label goods closer to the markets that sell them, and pushing suppliers toward countries with lower tariff exposure.¹⁴ Costco has not disclosed the total amount of duties it paid or the specific refund it expects.

The Consumer Class Actions

Two proposed class actions argue that Costco customers, not Costco itself, actually paid the tariffs through higher shelf prices, and that any refund the company collects amounts to a windfall the customers should share.

Stockov v. Costco (Chicago)

On March 11, 2026, Illinois resident Matthew Stockov filed a proposed class action in federal court in Chicago, alleging Costco stands to be paid twice for the same tariff: once by customers at the register, once by the government in refunds.¹⁵ The proposed class covers Costco shoppers in ten states — Illinois, California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin — who bought products subject to IEEPA tariffs between February 1, 2025, and February 24, 2026. The complaint estimated Costco may have passed on as much as $1.1 billion in tariff costs to U.S. members over that period.¹⁶

Costco moved to dismiss on May 18, 2026, before Judge Steven Seeger. The company argued the suit was premature because it has not received any government refunds, that Stockov suffered no injury because he received the goods he bought, and that retailers have no legal duty to reimburse customers when underlying costs later drop. Costco said it never promised customers a future refund and that the plaintiff “got what he paid for.”¹⁷¹⁶ As of mid-June 2026, the motion is pending, with Stockov’s response due June 16 and Costco’s reply due June 30.¹⁸

Briggs v. Costco (Washington)

A second class action, Briggs et al. v. Costco Wholesale Corporation, was filed on March 27, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington before Judge Jamal N. Whitehead. The Briggs complaint proposes a nationwide class rather than a ten-state one and also seeks punitive damages.¹⁹

Why Shoppers Face Long Odds

Costco never listed tariffs as a separate charge; the costs were folded into shelf prices along with everything else that affects pricing. Legal analysts have noted that proving on a class-wide basis how much of any individual product’s price came from tariffs, across millions of transactions, will be very hard.²⁰ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in February 2026 that he does not expect consumers to receive refund money directly, because by law refunds go to the businesses that paid the duties.¹⁷ For Costco shoppers, the most likely path to seeing any of this money back is the one Vachris described: lower prices going forward, not a check in the mail.

1
Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Costco Wholesale Corporation v. United States
2
SCOTUSblog. A Breakdown of the Courts Tariff Decision
3
Forbes. Costco Goes to Court: How Safe Is Your Tariff Refund
4
ABC News. Costco Seeks Full Refund of Tariffs in New Lawsuit Against Trump
5
CourtListener. AGS Company Automotive Solutions v. United States Customs and Border Protection
6
U.S. Supreme Court. Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287
7
BDO. Update on CBP IEEPA Refund Progress and New Orders From the US Court of International Trade
8
PwC. CIT Issues Order Related to IEEPA Duty Refunds
9
MSU Exponent. Costco Suit Highlights Gaps in $166B Tariff Refund Process
10
Holland & Knight. IEEPA Tariff Refund Update: Government Appeals
11
Foley & Lardner. What Every Multinational Should Know About the Governments Appeal of Judge Eatons Universal IEEPA Tariff Refunds Order
12
Hogan Lovells. The US Government Pushes Back on Judicial Authority to Order Some IEEPA Tariff Refunds
13
Forbes. Costco Says It Will Turn Possible Tariff Refunds Into Lower Prices and Better Values for Customers
14
NACS. Costco Holds Off Raising Prices Amid Tariffs
15
Chicago Sun-Times. Illinois Class-Action Lawsuit Against Costco Over Tariff Refunds
16
Legal Newsline. Costco Says No Refunds Owed to Customers for Tariff Price Hikes
17
The Center Square. Costco Files Motion to Dismiss Consumer Tariff Refund Class Action
18
CourtListener. Stockov v. Costco Wholesale Corporation
19
Ars Technica. Costco Sued for Seeking Refunds on Tariffs Customers PaidBriggs et al v. Costco Wholesale Corporation
20
Bloomberg Law. FedEx, Costco, UPS Are Main Targets for Consumer Tariff Refunds