Trade & Customs Oct 13, 2026 · 7 min read

IEEPA tariff refunds: the class action that could reach small importers

Trade court opens a refund route for importers who never sued. On 8 October the US Court of International Trade certified a class of importers that paid IEEPA tariffs between 1 February 2025 and 19 February 2026 and never filed their own suit. The judge says about $30bn would otherwise stay with the government. Our view: this is the main route left for small importers, but it is not money yet. The court has not ordered payment, and a government appeal is still pending. Forwarders and brokers should expect client calls now. We expect no class member to see a refund before the end of Q1 2027.

A $30bn tariff refund class now exists. The cheques are still months away.

On Thursday 8 October, the US Court of International Trade (CIT) certified a class of importers in Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States. The class covers importers that paid tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) between 1 February 2025 and 19 February 2026 and that did not file their own lawsuit, according to Supply Chain Dive. More than 4,000 separate suits have been filed, the order says. Without a class, about $30bn in IEEPA tariffs would stay with the government, Supply Chain Dive reports. Judge Richard Eaton wrote the order.

Our view is simple. This is the most important step so far for the small importers who have been left out of the refund process. It is also not money. Nothing in the order tells US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to pay anyone today. A government appeal still sits above the whole remedy. Forwarders and customs brokers should treat this as the start of a long process, not the end of one.

What the court actually did

The background first. The Supreme Court ruled the IEEPA tariffs illegal in February 2026. The CIT then ordered CBP to refund roughly $166bn collected under them, Supply Chain Dive reports. CBP built a portal for that, CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries). Importers file a declaration there, and CBP processes the refund.

CAPE has moved a lot of money. As of 2 October, CBP had accepted about $136.6bn in potential and certified refunds for processing, and about $126bn had been sent to Treasury for payment, according to Supply Chain Dive and Bloomberg Law.

The gap is the importers who never filed. The order is blunt about who they are. “Some importers of record have not taken advantage of CAPE,” it says. “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.”

Judge Eaton put a number on it. If CAPE stopped functioning today, “approximately $30 billion in unlawfully collected duties would remain on deposit in the Treasury,” he wrote, as quoted by Bloomberg Law.

The court said why it acted. “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, per Supply Chain Dive.

Two terms matter here. Liquidation is CBP’s final calculation of the duty owed on an entry. Reliquidation means reopening that calculation, in this case to take the IEEPA duty out.

Membership is automatic. “Importers that fall within the certified class are included automatically,” Vinetur reports, based on a notice from the Wine & Spirits Shippers Association. Members do not need to sue or sign up.

What it did not do

The limits are as important as the ruling.

James Kim, an international trade partner at ArentFox Schiff, put it plainly in a LinkedIn post quoted by Supply Chain Dive: “The decision doesn’t immediately expand refund eligibility or direct payment.” He added that it does “create a potential path forward for non-litigants.”

The court still has to decide whether to grant the injunction the class has asked for, Vinetur reports. That injunction would direct CBP to liquidate or reliquidate covered entries without IEEPA duties.

The calendar is short-term only. A closed conference with the parties was set for 13 October. Proposed scheduling for further class filings is due on 22 October, Supply Chain Dive reports.

Then there is the appeal. The Justice Department is challenging the CIT order that requires refunds for all finally liquidated entries. Its argument is that the court’s power covers only importers who sued, Supply Chain Dive reports. The government has leaned on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. CASA, which limited universal injunctions, according to Troutman Pepper Locke. That appeal is pending at the Federal Circuit.

The appeal is the real risk to the class. If the Federal Circuit agrees that relief must be limited to plaintiffs, the class becomes the main vehicle left for non-plaintiffs. That makes the class more important, but it also means the government will fight it hard.

The finally liquidated entries problem

Much of the remaining money sits in finally liquidated entries. These are entries more than 80 days past liquidation, the point where CBP said it could not process refunds through the normal route.

CBP has treated them differently from the start. Customs said importers with entries more than 80 days past liquidation needed to bring their own suits, Bloomberg Law reports. Troutman, writing in August, said “CBP has no current administrative pathway to refund those duties absent a court order.”

That is now starting to change, but only for plaintiffs. CBP opened CAPE Phase 3 for finally liquidated entries in October, after a target of end-July slipped, Supply Chain Dive reports. As of 6 October, CBP had accepted 477 Phase 3 declarations covering 425,517 entries. The phase is expected to handle about $11.4bn, or 6.9% of IEEPA tariffs. Kelly Nelson of KPMG Trade & Customs Services called it “Another important step in the CAPE process” in a LinkedIn post cited by Supply Chain Dive.

But only plaintiffs that submitted a valid importer of record number by 30 July 2026 can currently use Phase 3. Everyone else must wait for further instructions, and CBP has given no timeframe.

So the money is moving in a clear order. Importers who filed CAPE declarations early came first. Litigants with finally liquidated entries are next. Class members are last, and their route depends on a court ruling that has not happened.

What this means for forwarders and brokers

Expect the phone to ring. Many small importers rely on their forwarder or customs broker for anything customs-related. Plenty of them will hear “class action” and assume a cheque is on the way. It is worth being clear with them: they are probably in the class if they paid IEEPA duties in the window and never sued, but nothing is payable yet.

The importer of record is the party that gets the refund. Where a forwarder or broker acted as importer of record for a client, the question of who is owed what will come up. Check contracts and invoices now, before money moves.

The bigger decision is for mid-size importers with large finally liquidated exposure. Law firms have been telling them not to rely on a class. Troutman wrote in August that individual CIT filings are “the most certain path to recovery”. It warned that importers who wait “risk finding themselves permanently foreclosed from recovery” and said “Importers should not assume that administrative solutions will materialize.”

The reason is the clock. Troutman describes a two-year limitation period that runs from the date the duty was deposited. For early-2025 entries, that could expire as early as February 2027. It also says importers can defer filing until 4 February 2027 without prejudice and still receive interest, though it warns that further restrictions may come.

Steptoe made a similar point in July, saying “the scope of any potential class remains uncertain.” Certification answers part of that. It does not answer whether the class will survive the appeal, or how fast CBP will process it if it does.

For lanes and cash flow, the impact is indirect but real. A small importer waiting on a five- or six-figure refund is often a forwarder’s slow-paying customer. Refund timing affects credit decisions. Forwarders with SME-heavy books should not plan on refund-funded catch-up payments this quarter.

What happens next

Here are our calls, and they are our opinions.

First, the 22 October scheduling filing will set briefing on the class injunction that runs into December at the earliest. We do not expect the CIT to order CBP to pay class members before the end of 2026.

Second, the Federal Circuit ruling on finally liquidated entries will come before any class money moves. Troutman expected that ruling later in 2026. We expect CBP to hold off on any class processing until it lands.

Third, mid-size importers will keep filing their own suits. With the February 2027 limitation dates in view, we expect the count of separate IEEPA cases, now above 4,000, to keep climbing through Q4 rather than flatten because a class exists.

Our headline prediction: no class member will receive an IEEPA refund before the end of Q1 2027. For small importers who never used CAPE, the class is the best chance they have had. It is still a chance, not a payment.

Sources