Months after the US Supreme Court struck down certain tariff-related import charges, some Amazon customers could soon see money returned to their accounts. The online retail giant announced on Thursday that it will issue refunds to eligible customers who paid tariff-related import charges, although the timing and amounts have not been disclosed.
Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on an earnings call that the company had received $600 million from the US government following the Supreme Court’s February decision that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports were illegal.
From February to April 2025, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on many countries exporting goods to the US, using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as justification. As of mid-December, more than 301,000 U.S. importers had paid $175 billion to the US government in tariff penalties. The federal government is now issuing refunds to those importers.
Under the tariff system, the US importer — not the international exporter — pays the fees to the US government.
Olsavsky said that the $600 million payment from the government was the “majority of refunds we expect to receive.”
Which customers will get refunds?
Amazon did not disclose details about the refund process for customers — who will get them, how much they will get or when. Olsavsky said there were “a limited set of circumstances” where customers had to pay tariff charges on their items.
“When we receive those refunds, we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them,” he said.
Olsavsky said most Amazon customers didn’t have to pay import charges and that the company “largely absorbed” the higher prices of products affected by the tariffs. He said the company was able to avoid many tariff charges by building up its inventory before the charges hit.
An Amazon representative said the company had no further comment beyond Olsavsky’s remarks on the earnings call.
Other large merchants have also received refunds from the US government. Walmart said it would use the refunds to lower product prices, while Costco said it would compensate customers in some form, perhaps not necessarily with payments.
Bernstein analyst Zhihan Ma told Barron’s that consumers should not expect to get big paychecks in the mail from retailers. She said companies will pay some of their refund money to suppliers, and that Walmart and Costco would most likely “pass on value to their customers/members” through lower prices.
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