Class action: Nintendo plans to keep tariff refunds instead of passing them to buyers

A class action filed in the Western District of Washington accuses Nintendo of America of positioning itself to collect tariff refunds from the federal government while keeping the price hikes it already passed to consumers. Plaintiffs Gregory Hoffert and Prashant Sharan argue Nintendo would effectively be paid twice for the same IEEPA duties — once at retail, and again through government refunds with interest — and want the court to force those recoveries back to buyers who purchased Nintendo products between February 2025 and February 2026.

The suit lands as the refund machinery is just spinning up. The Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump’s IEEPA tariffs were illegally imposed, and the government’s refund portal opened this week with a 60–90 day processing window. More than 330,000 importers paid roughly $166 billion in IEEPA duties through early March. Nintendo separately sued the Trump administration last month to block any partial withholding of its own refund, signaling it expects a significant payout.

The core legal question is whether a pass-through importer has any obligation to return windfall refunds to end consumers when the underlying tariff is struck down. Nintendo has made no binding commitment to do so, and the complaint is structured to prevent what plaintiffs call an unjust double recovery before the refund checks clear.