The U.S. Court of International Trade has opened the door to refunds for importers who never asked for them. On Thursday, Senior Judge Richard Eaton certified a class of importers of record that paid tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act between 1 February 2025 and 19 February 2026. Importers that have already filed their own suits are excluded, according to Thompson Hine's SmarTrade update.
The case is Freestyle World Inc. v. Customs and Border Protection, No. 26-cv-1088, Bloomberg News reported.
Why a class
Most of the money has already gone back. The court had ordered Customs and Border Protection to refund roughly $166 billion collected under the invalidated levies, and CBP has since paid over $100 billion through its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries portal, known as CAPE, according to Supply Chain Dive. A Customs official's declaration to the court puts the total at about $126 billion plus interest, SmarTrade reported, while Bloomberg said almost $130 billion had been fully processed. The figures differ by source and date. The Treasury's own year-end cash statement showed $157.8 billion paid out through Customs in fiscal 2026.
The gap is in who has been paid. The order says: "Some importers of record have not taken advantage of CAPE. It is believed that these are overwhelmingly small importers who, because of the cost or effort involved in filing a CAPE declaration, or because they are unaware of the program, will never take advantage of CAPE." The court's position, Supply Chain Dive reported, is that without a class action approximately $30 billion in IEEPA tariffs would remain with the government.
Bloomberg said the administration had argued that importers with certain types of claims must file their own lawsuits, which prompted importers already seeking refunds to push for a class that could help small businesses without the means to sue.
What the order does and does not do
"Today, the court is certifying a class in the hope, and expectation, that this certification will lead to the liquidation or reliquidation of all of the entries on which the unlawful IEEPA duties were imposed, and the refund of those duties to the importers of record that paid them," the order says, as quoted by Supply Chain Dive.
It is a hope, not a payment order. James Kim, an international trade partner at ArentFox Schiff, said in a LinkedIn post that the decision "doesn't immediately expand refund eligibility or direct payment" but "does, however, create a potential path forward for non-litigants, toward a single order requiring refunds to be issued to importers that have not pursued individual lawsuits."
Class actions are rare at this court. SmarTrade said there has been only one other certified class since the court took its present form in 1980. The order itself notes that the court has ordered reliquidation of entries in more than 4,000 suits brought by individual importers.
Finally liquidated entries
The hardest group is entries that are "finally liquidated," meaning the government treats them as closed. The government's position, SmarTrade reported, is that it cannot reliquidate such entries without a court order. Supply Chain Dive said CBP began paying refunds on finally liquidated entries this week, but only for a select group of importers that have sued, and that the Justice Department is still appealing the earlier order requiring refunds on all of them, arguing the court has jurisdiction to order that only for importers who sued. That appeal is pending. SmarTrade said the Justice Department could also appeal the class certification.
The calendar
The court scheduled a closed conference with the parties for 13 October and set 22 October as the deadline for proposed scheduling of further filings, according to Supply Chain Dive. That means any sweeping refund order is weeks away at the least, and an appeal could slow it further.
On the filing's reading, importers that have not sued and have not filed through CAPE are now in the class by default, with no right to payment yet. Trade itself has kept flowing meanwhile, with a record $421 billion of imports in August. For the government, the question is how much of that sum it will end up returning, and how long it will take to find out.
The class definition, the order's quotations, the reference to more than 4,000 individual suits, the rarity of class actions at the court, the CAPE portal, the figure of about $126 billion refunded in a Customs declaration and the note that the Justice Department could appeal are from the Thompson Hine SmarTrade update of 9 October 2026. The roughly $166 billion collected, the more than $100 billion paid, the $30 billion that would remain with the government, the finally liquidated entries, the 13 October conference, the 22 October deadline, the pending appeal on finally liquidated entries and the comment of James Kim of ArentFox Schiff are from Supply Chain Dive, 9 October 2026. The case name and number, the almost $130 billion of refunds fully processed and the Justice Department's earlier position are from Bloomberg News, as published by Transport Topics on 8 October 2026. The differing refund totals reflect different dates and counting methods in the sources. The analysis is our own.
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