UPS Class Action Lawsuit: Illegal Tariffs, Arbitration, and Refunds

The UPS tariff class action lawsuit, filed February 20, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, accuses United Parcel Service of collecting shipping surcharges tied to tariffs the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the same day and then keeping the money.¹² The case, Anastopoulo v. United Parcel Service Inc. (No. 1:26-cv-01005), is still pending. No class has been certified, no claims process exists, and the court has not yet ruled on UPS’s motion to send the dispute to individual arbitration, which would effectively end the class action if granted.

What the Lawsuit Says UPS Did

Plaintiff Hali Anastopoulo alleges that UPS billed customers for shipping fees, duties, and tariff-related surcharges calculated on the basis of tariffs that have since been declared unlawful, and then failed to return that money to the people who paid it.³ The complaint rests on two theories:

Breach of contract. UPS’s shipping contracts authorize collection of lawful duties only. By charging customers for tariffs the Supreme Court invalidated, the company allegedly broke those contracts and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.⁴
Unjust enrichment. Keeping money collected under struck-down tariffs, while the consumers who paid received nothing, is inequitable.⁴

The proposed class covers all U.S. residents who paid unlawful IEEPA tariff-related charges to UPS. The suit seeks compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages, restitution, and a jury trial. The complaint points out the scale of what is at stake: $30 billion in tariff revenue was generated in January 2026 alone, a 304 percent increase over the prior year, with no automatic consumer refunds in place.²

Why the Tariffs Were Invalid

The underlying ruling is Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, decided February 20, 2026. The Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give the President authority to impose tariffs.⁵ President Trump had used IEEPA to impose a 25% duty on most goods from Canada and Mexico, 10% on Chinese imports, and at least 10% on imports from nearly every other trading partner. The Court concluded that IEEPA’s power to “regulate” importation during a national emergency does not include a power to tax, especially under the major questions doctrine, which demands clear congressional authorization for decisions of such economic magnitude. No president had used IEEPA to impose tariffs in the statute’s 50-year history before 2025.

After the ruling, the U.S. Court of International Trade directed Customs and Border Protection to refund the invalidated duties.⁶ Those refunds go to whoever was listed as the “Importer of Record” on the shipment, which is often a shipping carrier or customs broker rather than the consumer who paid the final bill. That gap is what the UPS class action is built on.

The Arbitration Motion That Could End the Case

On May 11, 2026, UPS moved to dismiss the Georgia case or, in the alternative, to compel individual arbitration.¹ UPS’s terms of service, which have included an arbitration clause since late 2013, require disputes to go before a single arbitrator under American Arbitration Association rules, with no jury trial and no class, mass, or consolidated proceedings allowed.⁷ If the court enforces that clause, the class action dissolves and any customer seeking money back has to pursue UPS individually.

The plaintiff filed an opposition on May 22, 2026, and UPS replied on June 5. Judge Victoria M. Calvert has stayed discovery while she considers the motion, which was submitted for decision as of June 8, 2026.¹ No ruling has been issued. Everything about whether this case continues as a class action depends on how she decides.

Can You Get Your Tariff Money Back Right Now?

Not through the lawsuit, and usually not directly from the government either. CBP’s refund process pays the Importer of Record, not downstream consumers, and CBP does not look at private contracts or who ultimately absorbed the cost.⁸ Roughly $5 billion in tariff refunds is expected to move through the system.⁹

Which side of the gap you are on depends on how your shipment was documented:

If you were the Importer of Record and UPS acted only as your customs broker, you can file your own refund claim through CBP’s CAPE portal. UPS offers fee-based help with those filings.⁸
If UPS was the Importer of Record, the government refund goes to UPS. Whether that money reaches you depends on UPS deciding to pass it through.⁸

A UPS spokesperson said the company “will support our customers in obtaining IEEPA tariff refunds due from the government after a refund process is established by CBP.”⁶ CEO Carol Tomé told investors UPS’s approach is to “work with the U.S. government and not to sue the U.S. government,” a different posture than FedEx, which joined thousands of companies suing for a full refund.⁹ What UPS has not promised is to automatically send government refund money on to the individual consumers who paid the inflated charges. That omission is the core grievance in the lawsuit.

UPS is not the only target. FedEx faces at least 11 similar lawsuits, with a petition pending before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate them, and Costco, Fabletics, and EssilorLuxottica have also been sued. Cases against carriers tend to involve itemized tariff surcharges on bills, which makes the harm easier to prove than retailer cases, where tariff costs were absorbed into general price increases.⁶

What You Should Do Now

There is nothing to sign up for yet. The case has not been certified as a class, no claim administrator has been appointed, and no settlement exists.² If you want to preserve a possible claim, keep any UPS invoices or receipts that show tariff, duty, or surcharge line items from the period the IEEPA tariffs were in effect.

If you shipped as your own Importer of Record, you do not need to wait for this lawsuit to resolve. You can pursue your refund directly through CBP’s CAPE system. If UPS was listed as the Importer of Record on your shipment, the practical outcome depends on the court’s arbitration ruling and on whether UPS chooses to pass government refunds through to customers.

1
CourtListener. Anastopoulo v. United Parcel Service Inc.
2
ClassAction.org. Class Action Lawsuit Claims UPS Collected Illegal Tariffs From Importers, Consumers
3
Top Class Actions. UPS Class Action Claims Company Collected Illegal Tariffs From Consumers
4
ClassAction.org. Anastopoulo v. UPS Complaint
5
Supreme Court of the United States. Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump
6
Bloomberg Law. FedEx, Costco, UPS Are Main Targets for Consumer Tariff Refunds
7
UPS. Claims Legal Action
8
UPS. US Customs Tariff Refunds
9
Fortune. FedEx, UPS Pledging Tariff Refunds Back to Customers