Amazon receives a huge tariff refund and promises refunds to consumers

Amazon announced that it received approximately $600 million in refunds from the federal government for tariffs on imports that were subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court. The company reported that it will use part of those funds to compensate customers.

In April 2025, President Donald Trump announced a series of retaliatory tariffs against dozens of countries. Many of these tariffs fell under the umbrella of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). In February of this year, the nation's highest court ruled that the president did not have the authority to impose tariffs under the IEEPA.

The ruling required the government to refund the tariffs to companies that imported products subject to those tariffs into the United States. In the following months, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began processing refund claims totaling billions of dollars.

"We are participating in the tariff refund process and, as I mentioned earlier, we received approximately $600 million in Q2," said Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, during the conference.

Olsavsky also stated that they had identified some cases in which customers were affected by these price increases. "We’ve identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we’ve passed specific import charges onto customers, and when we receive those refunds, we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them. Otherwise, like other large retailers, we’ll utilize refunds to continue to invest in low prices for customers," he added.

Amazon had not publicly disclosed whether it would seek refunds for the tariffs. In May, a group of consumers filed a class-action lawsuit in a federal court in Seattle, alleging that the company should refund the "extra costs" they paid for products affected by those tariffs. The lawsuit also alleged that Amazon was not seeking reimbursements from the government to avoid a conflict with the Trump administration.

Other companies that requested refunds included Apple, Walmart, Costco, Home Depot and General Motors, among others. However, so far, Amazon is one of the first major companies to publicly announce that it will allocate part of those funds to directly compensate its customers.