FedEx sues for refund of Trump tariffs, days after Supreme Court ruling

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Mon Feb 23, 2026, 08:13 PM - Edit history (3)

Source: CNBC

Published Mon, Feb 23 2026 6:02 PM EST Updated 2 Min Ago


Federal Express on Monday sued the U.S. government, seeking a "full refund" of the money the shipping giant paid for tariffs unilaterally imposed last year by President Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court ruled last week were illegal.

FedEx's suit appears to be the first filed by a major American company seeking a refund for tariffs after Friday's Supreme Court decision. Other companies filed lawsuits staking claims to their refunds before the high court ruled that the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are illegal.

Those suits, whose plaintiffs include retail warehouse club giant Costco, remain pending at the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, the same court where FedEx filed its lawsuit. The Supreme Court, in its ruling on Friday, said the Court of International Trade has "exclusive jurisdiction" over the IEEPA tariffs.

"Plaintiffs seek for themselves a full refund from Defendants of all IEEPA duties Plaintiffs have paid to the United States," Federal Express Corp, and its associated company, FedEx Logistics, say in the new lawsuit.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/23/fedex-trump-trade-tariffs-refunds-supreme-court-lawsuit.html

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Link to SUIT (PDF viewer) - https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72314557/2/federal-express-corporation-v-united-states/

Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cit.19237/gov.uscourts.cit.19237.2.0_1.pdf


Article updated.

Previous articles/headline -

FedEx sues U.S. seeking full refund of Trump tariffs days after Supreme Court ruling

Published Mon, Feb 23 2026 6:02 PM EST Updated 7 Min Ago


Federal Express on Monday sued the U.S. government, seeking a "full refund" of the money the shipping giant paid for tariffs unilaterally imposed last year by President Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court last week ruled were illegal.

FedEx's suit appears to be the first one filed by a major American company seeking a refund for tariffs paid after the Supreme Court decision on Friday. Other companies previously filed lawsuits seeking refunds, before the high court ruled that the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are illegal.

FedEx filed its lawsuit at ther Court of International Trade, which the Supreme Court ruling on Friday said has "exclusive jurisdiction" over the IEEPA tariffs.

"Plaintiffs seek for themselves a full refund from Defendants of all IEEPA duties Plaintiffs have paid to the United States," says the suit, which names as plaintiffs Federal Express Corp, and its associated company FedEx Logistics. The named defendants are U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which collects tariffs, its commissioner, Rodney Scott, and the U.S. government.

Published Mon, Feb 23 2026 6:02 PM EST Updated 1 Min Ago


Federal Express on Monday sued the U.S. government, seeking a "full refund" of the money the shipping giant paid for tariffs unilaterally imposed by President Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court last week ruled are illegal.

FedEx's suit appears to be the first one filed by a major U.S. company after the Supreme Court decision seeking a refund of the tariffs it has paid.

Other companies previously filed lawsuits seeking refunds, before the high court ruled that the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are illegal.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.


Original article -

Published Mon, Feb 23 2026 6:02 PM EST


This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. When we absolutely positively have to have it back /nt

[underpants]

2. Pamela Jo is going to be busy.

And the DOW isn’t over 50,000!!!

I’d file in DC if possible and put it in Porto’s lap.

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A

[efhmc]

3. Love it.

[BWdem4life]

4. After which they'll refund consumers for any costs they passed on

[VMA131Marine]

9. Well they should because in most cases FedEx didn't pay the tariffs, their customers did

Not only that but FedEx (and UPS, DHL, etc) charge a extortionate brokerage fee to the recipient for the privilege of having them front the tariff for you.

The money is not FedEx’s to keep and they will get sued if they try. There are also records of all the tariffs they have paid and on whose behalf so it’s not like they don’t know who to provide the refund to.

[Bluetus]

15. Let the lawsuits begin

The bigger the mess, the better.

I don't much care how the earlier tariffs are refunded as long as they are shoved up Trump's ass, metaphorically speaking.

The big issue is making sure this screws up Trump's next wave of tariffs made under the 1974 law. There will be lawsuits seeing injunctions. When considering injunctive relief, the court must consider who is likely to prevail, and who is injured if the injunction is granted or not granted. Last week's SCOTUS ruling makes it very likely that Trump would lose again. And if there is great chaos in doing these refunds, that becomes a strong reason to grant the injunction. In other words, "The count has determined that it is likely the plaintiffs will prevail, and if the court allowed the tariffs to proceed, this would present a major hardship on the plaintiffs who would then have to seek refunds. And we can see this is a very painful, chaotic process. On the other hand, if the court grants the injunction while hearing the merits of the case on an expedited basis, the government is not harmed at all unless they can demonstrate the new tariffs are legal under their new theory."

[delisen]

5. I think we should demand consumer refunds, ala Gov Pritzker

Some economists are already coming up reasons why we won’t get this.

However I think refunds to us is required to achieve justice.

The people should be the group that are reimbursed when we are unfairly charged, and we should be the group considered to big to fail when the banks steal and squander.

What our country needs more than anything is a a public tha that demands that our needs must come before corporate wants or needs.

A country is its people, and the goods and services providers must not come before us.

[slightlv]

13. I so agree with you, delisen!

But there'll be no one who actively advocates in our favor, I'll lay odds. I love what the governor did, but I also see it as a bit of performance art - knowing it'll go nowhere. WE paid the damned taxes, AND we paid the increases in prices that corporations added on in their bit to "pass on" their costs. But no where will we ever be paid back a 10th of what we've spent. Gotta forgive me. I went to the grocery store yesterday for a week's worth of groceries. Now I'm trying to figure out how to pay the ambulance fee that's overdue. Either pay to eat or to live. That's what we've come to.

[twodogsbarking]

6. they deliver

[ToxMarz]

7. Why would FedEx pay tariffs, importers pay them on the goods not the shipping.

FedEx may have.been required to collect them for the govt at delivery but it wasn't them paying. Or am I missing something.

[erronis]

8. Unless Fedex is receiving the goods at port of entry and have to make the payments then.

Still, I'm sure that Fedex would pass any of those costs on to the recipient.

Good question.

[VMA131Marine]

10. When the tariffs aren't pre-paid by the shipper ...

which pretty much everything coming in through the mail now is, then the carrier, i.e. FedEx will pay the tariff at the port of entry. When they deliver the item to the customer it’s C.O.D. and the customer has to pay the tariff plus a brokerage fee to FedEx to get their shipment. The brokerage fee is often a significant fraction of the tariff itself.

I’m assuming FedEx wouldn’t refund the brokerage fee but any tariff refund would not be theirs to keep.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I finally found a link to the suit and added to the OP -

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72314557/2/federal-express-corporation-v-united-states/

In the suit, they indicate that they fit the definition listed in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section-101.1 as an Importer - https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-19/chapter-I/part-101/section-101.1

Importer. “Importer” means the person primarily liable for the payment of any duties on the merchandise, or an authorized agent acting on his behalf. The importer may be:

(1) The consignee, or

(2) The importer of record, or

(3) The actual owner of the merchandise, if an actual owner's declaration and superseding bond has been filed in accordance with § 141.20 of this chapter, or

(4) The transferee of the merchandise, if the right to withdraw merchandise in a bonded warehouse has been transferred in accordance with subpart C of part 144 of this chapter.

Am guessing in reference to that #4 in the definition. I.e., as a 3rd party "shipper", they are holding (in warehouses) and transferring what the importers who contract with them, bring in (where some have their own delivery services like Amazon but others rely on 3rd parties like Fedex/UPS/USPS/DHL, etc).

So there might be some kind of arrangement between the importer and shipper to split the tariff costs.

[ToxMarz]

16. Found a long (AI) answer

Here is why they are filing the lawsuit themselves despite passing costs to customers:
Legal Standing: Under U.S. trade law, only the party that actually paid the government—the Importer of Record—has the legal standing to demand a refund. Because FedEx’s logistics arm often formally "entered" the goods into the U.S., they are the only entity the government recognizes as the payer.
Administrative Responsibility: FedEx frequently uses its own funds to pay duties at the border to ensure packages aren't delayed. While they then invoice the shipper or recipient to get that money back, the original transaction was between FedEx and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Corporate Rights: In its February 23, 2026, filing, FedEx explicitly stated it is taking action to "protect the company's rights as an importer of record".
The "Pass-Through" Problem: Whether FedEx will eventually pass these refunds back to their customers is a major point of debate. Currently, there is no legal requirement for them to do so, and some lawmakers are already calling for legislation to ensure consumers get their share.
In short: FedEx is acting as the "legal owner" of the payment, regardless of who they billed later. If the government owes a refund, it goes to the person who signed the check at the border—which, for millions of packages, was FedEx.

[VMA131Marine]

18. If FedEx doesn't pass the refunds back to the recipient

Who they billed the tariff amount to, they are going to get sued themselves. It will be a massive class action.
I personally have paid close to $1000 in tariffs via UPS as the importer. They aren’t entitled to keep any refunds they recover.

[VMA131Marine]

17. No, not at all.

They just pass the tariff cost onto the recipient AND charge a substantial (like 25-50% of the tariff) fee for doing so. So, no they never pay the tariff.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. What I posted was referenced directly from the lawsuit

I.e., what statute they referenced that basically "qualified" them to have "standing" to sue as an "importer".

Now what agreements and processes they and brokers/importers, etc., have with their shippers about who collects/pays/reimburses, etc., is probably going to vary.

[AZJonnie]

11. Imagine how confused the average thumb-sucking RWNJ will be when they hear about this case

Actually, they probably won't cause it won't be on Faux, who I'd imagine are still hard at work convincing the cultists that "foreign countries" were paying all of Trump's tariffs

[BadgerMom]

14. I want my share!

We moved in December and I needed a few items here and there where old stuff was lacking. I considered tariffs and chose items that were in my price range, assuming the price reflected tariffs. Additionally, we had things sent to my daughter because she was in Santa Fe while we packed up a home we’d just sold.

Well, come January our daughter, as recipient, was sent a tariff bill from FedEx for $300+. Of course, we paid it. I told my husband as he was putting our tax info together that we should include the tariff bill as an income deduction as a tax we’ve paid. Sure, Jan. But I still think we should do it, citing the SC decision stating it’s a tax.

[wolfie001]

20. One of their CEOs was rabidly pro-tRUMP

Don't really know if he's still around but the fat orange imbecile sure fucked up this tRUMPian company.