March 20, 2026

Practical Guidance for Suppliers Fielding Customer Tariff Refund Requests

Michael Burke, Allison Raley Arnall Golden Gregory LLP + Follow Contact LinkedIn Facebook X Send Embed

Key Takeaways

• IEEPA tariff refunds depends on importer status. Following the Supreme Court’s 2026 decision limiting presidential tariff authority, only the Importer of Record can seek refunds from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), creating downstream recovery challenges across supply chains.
• Contract rights drive downstream recovery. Retailers, distributors, and other buyers must rely on contractual provisions, pricing structures, and equitable claims (e.g., unjust enrichment) to recover tariff-related costs.
• Importers of Record should expect refund-sharing requests where tariff costs were passed through to customers.
• Immediate action is required to preserve refund rights. Importers must act within strict CBP protest deadlines (180 days) and prepare for evolving administrative processes tied to large-scale IEEPA refund claims. On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) does not give the president authority to impose tariffs. In response, companies across many industries are now asking how they can recover the IEEPA tariffs they paid over the past year. This alert is aimed at suppliers who are now getting questions from their customers, retailers, distributors, and other downstream buyers about how to obtain refunds from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”). It walks through who can request a refund from the government and what options are available to parties further down the supply chain.

Only the Importer of Record Can Ask CBP for a Refund

Under U.S. customs law, only the “Importer of Record,” the party listed on the entry paperwork and responsible for paying duties, can ask CBP to refund IEEPA tariffs. That party is identified on CBP Form 7501 (Entry Summary), including in Box 27 (Importer Number) and Box 30 (Importer of Record Name and Address).

If a downstream buyer (for example, a retailer, distributor, or end user) paid a tariff-inclusive price to a supplier but is not named as the Importer of Record on the entry, it does not have a direct refund claim against the U.S. government. This remains true even if that buyer ultimately bore the full economic cost of the tariff through higher purchase prices.

When customers approach your company asking for tariff refunds, they should understand that any potential recovery from the government must flow through the Importer of Record, not from CBP directly to them. Their leverage typically comes from their contracts and commercial relationship with that Importer of Record.

How Can Downstream Buyers Recover IEEPA Tariff Costs?

If your customers paid higher prices because of IEEPA tariffs but are not the Importer of Record, they should focus on their commercial rights and documentation.

Downstream buyers should:

• Review existing supply agreements. Customers should look closely at contracts with the Importer of Record for language that might support a claim to part of any refund, such as duty drawback or refund sharing clauses, price adjustment or true up provisions, cost plus pricing formulas that treat duties as a separate cost element, most favored pricing clauses, or material adverse change provisions that allow for repricing.
• Preserve evidence of tariff pass through. Customers should gather documents that show how tariff costs were passed on to them, including price increase notices citing IEEPA tariffs, invoices that break out tariff surcharges, purchase order histories, and emails or other correspondence linking price changes to IEEPA tariffs. The clearest fact pattern is where the supplier explicitly referenced IEEPA tariffs in writing.
• Send a preservation of rights notice. Customers should consider sending a written demand or reservation of rights letter to the Importer of Record asserting a right to a proportional share of any IEEPA tariff refund tied to their purchases. This helps create a contemporaneous record of the claim before refunds are issued.
• Monitor the Importer of Record refund efforts. Customers should track whether key suppliers are filing Post Summary Corrections, protests, or CIT litigation, as these actions often signal that refund efforts are underway.
• Assess potential legal theories. Even if contracts are silent on tariff refunds, downstream buyers may still have arguments under breach of contract (where related provisions exist), unjust enrichment (where the Importer of Record keeps a refund corresponding to costs passed through to the buyer), or breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing under UCC Article 2, particularly where the parties course of dealing involved transparent tariff pass through. These theories have not yet been tested in the specific context of IEEPA tariff refunds, and their viability will depend on the facts of each commercial relationship.

What Should Importers of Record Do to Secure Tariff Refunds?

If your company is the Importer of Record and paid IEEPA tariffs, now is the time to get ready for the refund process and for likely follow-on questions from your customers.

Importers of Record should:

• Confirm eligibility for electronic refunds. CBP has indicated that refunds will be made only via electronic Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) payments, so importers should verify that they have an ACE account and are enrolled in ACH Refund, especially if they paid IEEPA duties in significant amounts.
• Compile entry level data. Importers should work with customs brokers to pull entry data from ACE that identifies all entries where they were the Importer of Record and paid IEEPA duties, using reports such as the Entry Summary Details report (ES 003) and filtering for relevant HTSUS codes (for example, those beginning with 9903.01 and 9903.02). Supporting records should include entry documents (CBP Forms 3461 and 7501), commercial invoices, packing lists, proof of duty payment, and any post-entry filings.
• Act promptly on liquidated entries. Importers with entries that have already been liquidated should file protests within the 180-day statutory window to preserve their refund rights. The Court of International Trade’s Universal Refund Order addresses unliquidated and liquidated-but-not-final entries, but recovery on finally liquidated entries (those past the 180-day protest window) remains an open question. Importers should prioritize identifying any entries approaching or past the protest deadline.
• Prepare for downstream claims. Importers that passed IEEPA tariff costs to customers, either as separately listed surcharges or baked into general price increases, should expect those customers to ask for a share of any refunds. Importers should review contracts with key customers, assess whether they have obligations to share refunds, and evaluate potential exposure to claims by customers, consumer advocates, or enforcement authorities.

Provisions to Consider in Future Supply Contracts

Looking ahead, parties can significantly reduce uncertainty by addressing tariff refunds directly in their contracts. For imports subject to future duty changes, supply agreements should clearly spell out how any tariff refunds or duty drawbacks will be handled.

At a minimum, parties should include:

• An express obligation for the supplier to notify the buyer within a set period after receiving any tariff refund or drawback on goods sold to that buyer.
• A defined formula for the buyer share of any refund, tied to the documented tariff component in the price.
• A timeline for crediting or remitting the buyer share, including interest if payment is delayed.
• An audit right that allows the buyer to review relevant customs entries, liquidation records, and refund documentation to verify the calculation. The IEEPA tariff refund process is still taking shape, and key procedural details are evolving quickly. Importers should not assume that refunds will be issued automatically or in the near term. The government may still challenge the availability of refunds or appeal the Court of International Trade’s Universal Refund Order, and the administrative infrastructure needed to process refunds at scale — covering approximately $166 billion in IEEPA duties collected across more than 53 million entries — is still being built.

The core rule, however, is straightforward: only the Importer of Record can seek refunds directly from CBP, and downstream buyers that paid higher prices must look to their contracts and commercial relationships with that Importer of Record for recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions About IEEPA Tariff Refunds

Who is eligible for IEEPA tariff refunds?

Only the Importer of Record listed on CBP Form 7501 may file refund claims with CBP.

Can downstream buyers recover tariff costs?

Not from CBP directly. Recovery depends on contract terms, pricing structures, and potential legal claims against the importer.

What is the deadline to file a CBP protest?

Generally, 180 days from liquidation of the entry.

What happens if the protest deadline is missed?

Recovery may be barred, though litigation over late-stage recovery remains unresolved.

What legal claims might downstream buyers assert?

Potential claims include breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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