A federal court has certified a class action covering importers who paid IEEPA duties. Here is what it does, what it does not do, and what importers should do now.
Boutique Customs Brokerage & Trade Compliance
Paid IEEPA tariffs? That money is owed back to the importer of record.
On October 8, the Court of International Trade certified a class action covering every importer of record that paid IEEPA duties between February 1, 2025 and February 19, 2026. Most refunds still come back through CBP’s refund system, not the lawsuit. As a licensed customs broker, Mercantile finds what you haven’t claimed, files what can be filed now, and sorts out what’s waiting on the court.
Where things stand
$126B of $166B
in IEEPA duties plus interest had been refunded as of October 2, 2026, according to CBP figures cited by the Court of International Trade.
That still leaves roughly $30 billion with the Treasury. The duties were collected from about 330,000 importers of record, and the court believes tens of thousands of them, mostly small businesses, still haven’t filed.
Read the court’s order
We host the full order here so you can read the source yourself, not a summary of a summary. In it, the court notes that if CAPE stopped working today, about $30 billion in unlawfully collected duties would stay with the Treasury. Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States, Court No. 26-01088, U.S. Court of International Trade, October 8, 2026.
Only the importer of record can claim
Refunds go to whoever was listed as the importer of record on the entry. If you brought goods in under your own name, that’s you, even if a broker filed the paperwork. If you bought from a supplier or distributor who handled the import, they were the importer of record. Not sure which applies? Send us a few entry numbers and we’ll tell you.
What usually gets left behind
If your first round of CAPE declarations went through, that’s good. These are the gaps we see after it.
Rejected declarations
Importer-of-record or filer mismatches and wrong entry numbers that bounced and were never refiled.
Files that failed validation
CSV files that didn’t match CBP’s required template, so whole batches never made it into processing.
Finally liquidated entries
Entries liquidated more than 80 days ago. CAPE doesn’t accept most of these yet unless the importer has its own court order, so they need a plan, not just a file.
Early 2025 entries
The first months of the tariffs, when entries were spread across brokers and easy to miss.
Stalled payments
Refunds approved but held up because ACH payment details were never set up in ACE.
We answer. We analyze. We act.
We answer
You tell us your situation
You’ll hear back in hours, not weeks. Share your ACE entry and refund reports, including entries filed by other brokers. We never ask for your ACE password.
We analyze
We find what was missed
Every entry that carried IEEPA duties is checked against what’s actually been refunded. You get a plain summary of what looks recoverable and why.
We act
We fix it and file it
We correct mismatches and file-format problems, then submit the CAPE declarations in ACE as your licensed broker. Refunds go from CBP straight to your account by ACH.
When an attorney is needed
For older, finalized entries, choosing between your own lawsuit and the class action is a legal decision. We’ll show you which entries are affected and connect you with a trade attorney we work with. And if your situation falls outside what a broker can handle, we’ll refer you to a qualified specialist.
What it costs
The first check is free. There’s no fee to be part of the class action, and nobody can charge you to join it. Our fee covers reviewing your entries and filing refunds as your licensed broker: [fee model, and when it’s charged].
Juggling five brokers and losing track?
That’s where refunds slip through. Each broker filed its own entries, and nobody is looking at the whole picture. We bring it into one place so you can see what came back and what didn’t.
Insights
The latest on IEEPA refunds
What Is the CAPE Refund Process? When the Supreme Court ruled certain IEEPA tariffs unlawful earlier this year, a lot of importers heard the headline and assumed a refund check…
Already sold or assigned your refund rights?
Over the past year, some importers sold their refund rights to third parties, often for 25 to 75 percent of the expected refund. If you did, you may not be able to recover those entries yourself, and we’d need to see the agreement to know what’s left. Entries that weren’t part of the sale may still be yours. The form below asks about this up front so we don’t waste your time.
Tell us your situation
A few details are enough to start a free refund check. We’ll follow up within [one business day] with what we need and what happens next. Prefer email? Write to kdaniels@mlitinc.com.