May 4, 2026
After bearing the brunt of tariff costs, select American consumers may finally get a share of the $166-billion reimbursement from the federal government.
On April 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a dedicated Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) portal to help businesses recoup losses incurred from import levies that the Supreme Court ruled illegal in February (1).
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The ruling and subsequent refund scheme only applies to those tariffs that were administered under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) between April 2025 and February 2026, which directly impacted some 330,000 domestic importers (2).
Unfortunately for the general public, only businesses can submit compensation requests, despite the fact that the majority of the financial burden of the tariffs — an estimated 46% to upwards of 115% (3) — was passed on to shoppers in the form of increased prices on goods and services. In total, the average American family paid more than $1,700 in tariff costs, according to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (4).
Still, there is some relief to be had, as some companies are vowing to make it up to customers who paid exorbitant amounts to purchase items from abroad during the affected period.
Who is issuing refunds to customers?
FedEx (5), UPS (6) and DHL (7) are among the first brands to confirm they will transfer tariff repayments back to customers, each releasing their own public statements on the matter in recent days.
UPS confirmed to Moneywise in a written statement that it will be "processing refunds for eligible shipments where we served as the importer." It is in the midst of submitting $5 billion of reimbursement requests through the CAPE tool (8), which is taking submissions in phases, starting with the most recent tariff expenses from on or after January 30, 2026.
"We will expand our efforts as CBP launches future phases [and] are committed to supporting our customers during the refund process," said UPS on its website (6).
The CEO of Costco has also expressed plans to "find the best way to return this value to our members" through lower prices and "better value," but that's contingent on if and when the brand receives money back for tariffs paid, The Palm Beach Post reports (8).
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Some additional welcome good news in this whole ordeal is the fact that, aside from the odd early glitch (9), the CAPE system is proving quite effective so far, with 3% of eligible returns already processed (10).
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How will it work?
Refunds through CAPE, which is a new page on CPB's existing ACE (Automated Commercial Environment) portal for imports and exports, are projected to take 60 to 90 days to process. There is no word yet on how long it could take for vendors to relay the funds they receive, in turn, to shoppers.
But, companies like FedEx have said they are "committed to working expeditiously" to issue remittances as soon as they begin receiving refunds from the CPB (5).
Individuals do not need to submit anything themselves, as all three shipping giants have clarified they will be handling the logistics with the CPB. The exception to this is cases where the buyer served as the importer of record, in which case they may have to submit their own claim through CPB, unless they shipped with DHL (11).
Is there any other way for buyers to get money back for tariffs?
Experts, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (12), say it's unlikely that the compensation will trickle down to consumers in any meaningful way.
But some residents are taking things into their own hands: Dozens of class-action lawsuits are reportedly in the works against corporations like FedEx and Lululemon for allegedly charging customers more to offset tariff hits, then accessing refunds for those tariffs (13).
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Fox News (1); USA Today (2); Yale Budget Lab (3); U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (4); FedEx (5); UPS (6); DHL (7),(11); Yahoo Finance (8),(12); CBS News (9); Supply Chain Dive (10); Dentons (13).
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Becky Robertson is a senior staff reporter with Moneywise and a lifelong writer. Along with years in the journalism industry at outlets such as blogTO and Quill & Quire, she's participated in writing residencies at the Banff Centre and Writing Workshops Paris. With 33 countries visited, she finds travel to be one of her greatest inspirations.
