‘It will not be automatic or immediate’: Companies brace for a messy tariff refund process

Ben Werschkul · Washington Correspondent

Updated Sun, February 22, 2026 at 10:18 PM GMT+9 5 min read

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Friday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling struck down President Trump’s blanket tariffs but left open a key question around whether companies that already paid the duties will be able to get refunds.

The court’s majority opinion was silent on that top-of-mind issue for companies, while President Trump signaled that he wouldn’t give tariff refunds willingly.

“I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years,” the president said as he declined to respond directly to a question of whether he would honor refunds for companies that file for them.

“It would have been a simple matter for the president to assure American taxpayers who carried this billions-of-dollar burden to commit to returning the funds that were unlawfully levied,” said Erik Smithweiss, a partner focused on trade issues at the firm GDLSK, in an interview Friday afternoon.

“The notion that American taxpayers have to now litigate to get back money that the government illegally collected is unfortunate,” he added.

President Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House on February 20 to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling against a major part of his tariffs. (Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images) · MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images

The process ahead is murky, likely requiring plenty of legal wrangling as the refund issue now appears headed to lower courts, in particular the US Court of International Trade (CIT).

That three-judge panel previously ruled in 2025 that Trump’s blanket tariffs were illegal, a ruling that the Supreme Court upheld Friday.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model laid out the stakes, saying that reversing these tariffs may generate up to $175 billion in refunds. The group added that, unless the duties are replaced by another source, future tariff revenue collections could also fall by half.

But Trump was quick to announce that he would sign an executive order imposing a 10% global tariff under a different tariff authority, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, “over and above our normal TARIFFS already being charged.”

After signing the order late Friday, on Saturday Trump announced on social media that he was raising that amount to 15%, the “fully allowed, and legally tested” level.

‘A refund opportunity for importers’

Ted Murphy, an international trade lawyer at the firm Sidley Austin, offered his own guidance to clients, saying, “We believe that the decisions create a refund opportunity for importers,” but that it would be far from clean or easy.

“We are willing to bet [the process ahead] will not be automatic or immediate,” he said, adding that one next step, in addition to possible litigation, will be guidance from the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) on how importers should proceed.

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When that will come is very uncertain with the CBP, a part of the US Department of Homeland Security, currently part of a government shutdown.

A container ship loaded with shipping containers is seen at the Port of Los Angeles on February 20 after the US Supreme Court ruled that President Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs on most U.S. trading partners were illegal. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) · Mario Tama via Getty Images

Lee Smith, an international trade lawyer at the firm of Baker Donelson in Washington, added that he expected the Court of International Trade to become the final arbiter of this issue.

“We expect importers will be required to take action to receive a refund," he added.

Other observers were quick to warn companies not to hold their breath.

“Those who think market participants are getting rebates any time soon — or at all — are dreaming,” quipped Terry Haines of Pangaea Policy in his own missive to clients.

‘More litigation and paperwork will be required’

Trump has a variety of levers he could pull to drag out the expected flood of lawsuits and make the refund process a complex and expensive one for businesses.

Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute noted after the ruling that a refund process could be relatively painless — but he predicted it wouldn’t be so.

“It appears more likely that more litigation and paperwork will be required,” he said in a statement.

One lever for Trump and his legal team involves the issue of “liquidations,” which, in the trade context, refers to a final calculation of tariffs owed on an imported good.

Preemptive lawsuits have already been filed, with companies fearful that the conclusion of the liquidation process would give the Trump administration additional leverage to deny refund requests.

Costco (COST) is just one company that had preemptively sued the Trump administration last year to ensure its future eligibility for refunds. The lawsuit, delivered to the Court of International Trade, said the company “seeks relief from the impending liquidations to ensure that its right to a complete refund is not jeopardized.”

The retailer is far from alone. Companies have been preparing for refunds since November, and more than 1,500 have filed their own tariff-related lawsuits at the CIT to get in line for tariff refunds, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

An exterior view of The United States Court of International Trade in lower Manhattan is seen in 2025. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) · Spencer Platt via Getty Images

The overall sense for the moment is that companies searching for refunds will need to engage in this legal maneuvering.

But Smithweiss nodded to the trade-offs companies are likely to face in the months ahead, noting that Trump on Friday called those who have sued over tariffs “sleazebags.”

“There’s certainly many mainstream American companies that desire to avoid that label from the president, whether they agree or disagree with the tariff policy,” he said, “but as of today, there’s only one mechanism to compel a refund, and that’s litigation in the court.”

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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