Costco and UPS pledge to pass through IEEPA tariff refunds, but timing remains uncertain

U.S. companies are beginning to line up to return money tied to tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose sweeping import duties. Costco Wholesale and UPS, among the best-known names in their industries, are making a public point that the recovered funds should not become a profit windfall, even as the refund mechanism plays out over months.

Costco Chief Executive Ron Vachris said on a recent earnings call that the company is submitting refund claims through the U.S. customs process for IEEPA tariffs and intends to return a portion of that value to members. Axios reported that Costco framed the pass-through in terms of lower prices and better values, while emphasizing that details depend on what refunds are ultimately received and when. The company also said it will aim to be transparent about how it applies any recovered amounts.

UPS similarly positioned itself as a pass-through. The company’s U.S. guidance on IEEPA tariff refunds says that if UPS served as the Importer of Record, or IOR, for a shipment, UPS will retrieve IEEPA refunds from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the customer’s behalf and then issue refunds through its internal process. The company said customers do not need to take additional action in that scenario.

UPS’s published timeline is also cautious. UPS says CBP will take at least 60 to 90 days to deliver requested refunds to IORs, and UPS cannot issue the refund to the payor until it receives the money from CBP. For eligible shipments, UPS says it will reconcile the received funds against the original tariff payment amount, and then apply any refund and applicable interest by first offsetting open invoices before disbursing remaining funds.

UPS also warned that not all costs can be recovered. In its FAQ, the carrier said administrative fees incurred for the services of rating and assessing the IEEPA tariffs were valid at the time of the charge and are nonrefundable. It also noted that CBP has provided guidance only for Phase One refunds so far, limiting which tariff payments are currently eligible under the government’s staged approach.

TheStreet’s reporting on Costco and UPS added specific early scale indicators. It said UPS processed more than 2.5 million entries in its first batch of tariff refund requests, covering roughly $500 million, and that more than $20 billion in tariff refunds had already been completed out of over $85 billion accepted for processing at that point. Separately, Reuters reported that companies rushed to submit claims after a refund system went live and that about $166 billion in tariff collections were potentially subject to refunds.

Even with public commitments, consumer-facing outcomes are likely to remain indirect. Because only importers (the IORs) are positioned to file claims in the U.S. customs framework, customers are generally dependent on how retailers or logistics providers convert any recovered amounts into lower prices, credits, or other value. UPS also says it cannot confirm when any particular refund will be issued, and it emphasized that additional phases could follow, but with limited government guidance at the moment.

For investors and customers, the next questions are practical rather than political: whether CBP continues to expand eligibility beyond Phase One, how quickly refunds move through UPS and other intermediaries once CBP remits funds, and whether the promised savings show up as measurable price changes at major retailers. Companies also may face follow-on scrutiny over whether their stated commitments translate into consistent customer crediting as the refund totals become clearer.