Nintendo is taking the White House to court, demanding a full refund for what it paid to cover the Trump administration’s now-voided tariffs.
Nintendo filed the lawsuit today in the US Court of International Trade, two weeks after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” and those on China, Canada, and Mexico.
The lawsuit, spotted by Aftermath, also calls for the White House to pay interest. Nintendo accuses various federal agencies of engaging in “unlawful trade measures that have, to date, resulted in the collection of more than $200 billion in tariffs on imports from nearly all countries.”
Nintendo’s complaint doesn’t say how much it paid in tariffs. But it was likely a lot considering the company imported numerous Switch consoles from Cambodia and Vietnam, two countries that were ensnared in Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
Nintendo joins a wave of businesses suing the Trump administration for refunds. The US Court of International Trade shows that over 380 tariff and customs-related lawsuits have been filed against the US government since the Supreme Court ruling. Other lawsuits were filed earlier, bringing the total to about 2,000, according to one law firm.
On Wednesday, a judge for the Court of International Trade ordered the Trump administration to begin reimbursements. However, on Friday, US Customs and Border Protection said it couldn’t immediately comply with the order, partly because of IT troubles.
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“CBP is now facing an unprecedented volume of refunds. Its existing administrative procedures and technology are not well-suited to a task of this scale and will require manual work that will prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s trade enforcement mission,” it said.
That said, CBP is preparing a new IT system to handle the refunds “for use in 45 days.” The agency also estimates it collected $166 billion under the now-invalid tariffs.
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About Our Expert
Michael Kan
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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