Amazon.com is being sued by consumers seeking refunds for costs passed on to them in the form of higher prices as a result of tariffs the US Supreme Court later concluded had been unlawfully imposed by US President Donald Trump.

Consumers in a proposed class action filed in federal court in Seattle alleged that the e-commerce giant collected hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful tariff costs by raising prices on imported goods before the Supreme Court had ruled.

The Supreme Court in February concluded in a 6-3 decision that Trump overstepped his authority by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose his sweeping tariffs.

Thousands of companies have begun to seek billions of dollars in refunds from the government following the ruling.

But Amazon has not, which the lawsuit alleged was "not because it lacks a legal basis to do so, but because it seeks to curry favour with Trump by allowing the federal government to retain the funds".

"The problem is that the funds Amazon is using to stay in the president's good graces do not belong to Amazon,” the lawsuit says. "These funds were wrongfully taken from consumers to cover IEEPA tariffs that have since been invalidated."

The lawsuit asserts claims of unjust enrichment and violation of Washington state's consumer-protection law.

The lawsuit follows several earlier cases filed by consumers accusing companies ranging from Costco to Nike to FedEx of failing to pass on tariff refunds to consumers.

Unlike companies that imported goods, consumers are not eligible to seek tariff refunds from the government for the higher costs they incurred while they were in effect, Friday's lawsuit notes.

To support its claim that politics were behind Amazon's actions, the lawsuit notes that in April 2025, the company faced White House blowback after a report that it was considering displaying how much of a product's cost came from the IEEPA tariffs.

Amazon denied the story and said it never considered listing tariff prices on its main retail site. But the report prompted Trump to call Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos to complain, the lawsuit says. (Reuters)




Edited by Robert Kemp