- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
- cross-posted to:
- world@quokk.au
The wholesaler is the latest company to file a lawsuit against a federal agency over the president’s signature economic policy.
Costco Wholesale has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking the Court of International Trade to consider all tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act unlawful.
The company said in a Nov. 28 filing that it is seeking a “full refund” of all IEEPA duties paid as a result of Donald Trump’s executive order which imposed what he called “reciprocal” tariffs.
“Because IEEPA does not clearly authorize the President to set tariffs…the Challenged Tariff Orders cannot stand and the defendants are not authorized to implement and collect them,” Costco’s lawyer writes in the lawsuit.
Global cosmetics giant Revlon, eyeglass maker EssilorLuxottica, motorcycle manufacturer Kawasaki, canned foods seller Bumble Bee, Japanese auto supplier Yokohama Tire and many smaller firms have also filed similar suits


This is how they transfer wealth from consumers to corporations
We pay the tariffs Corporations get the tariff refund
Trickle up economics as usual
Isn’t corporate profit at the expense of the consumers like … the whole point of capitalism?
If you look at Costco’s actions in the past they have been pretty fair for their customers. Costco is actually in a very good position where they know exactly who bought what and Costco can issue refunds to their customers based on that data. Even if they just do it as ‘store credit’ it would still be very welcome to most of their customers and that would help to offset Costco’s administrative costs of determining the refund amounts for everyone.
I like Costco as much as the next person but they will absolutely not be refunding us based on what we purchased lol
I’ll happily eat these words but im fairly certain I won’t have to
The article states that on a bunch of items they’ve just been eating the cost so they’ve been paying the tariffs instead of passing them on. For those cases, there is nothing to refund to the consumers.
Yeah but it doesn’t state they’ve eaten the tariffs on everything just certain staple items
And I would wager those items they’ve eaten the cost on, is what they’re seeking compensation on.
It
literallysays this in the articleNah as it stands, costco is a bro.
Used to be then they became one of the worst customer service sites to visit. I hate Walmart and Sam’s club with a passion, but damn if their denial of my kids to run inside and go to the bathroom while I got gas pissed me off to no end.
This is what I hate about these places. You need your membership card to check out. All the items are too big to fit under your coat which thwarts shoplifting to some degree.
Why the hell do you need to see my card at the door? Just put a scanner with turnstiles at the front of shop if it’s that big of an issue.
Sam’s club understands this. And frankly it’s refreshing.
My local Sam’s is hit or miss. Half the time they ask me and other times they don’t. I have admittedly stormed past them without providing proof in the past while they call after me lol.
Probably not, but they did state last year that the extra money they made from the gas station (they kept it competitive with other places) was used to keep the yearly “admission” price the same.
I’ve also heard that costco doesn’t suck to work for as far as retail goes and many will actually work most of their career there.
I can speak from experience when I say this, Costco is great to the warehouse workers, they treat IT like shit.
My stepson works for Costco. They are a fantastic employer compared to other retailers. They also do legitimately promote from within, including for business office professional positions.
Fwiw the people seem cheerful enough. At least not dead inside like Wal mart or any other big chain.
From the article:
Honestly, that’s pretty decent of them.
That’s great but only represents Costco. I purchased a lot of things not from Costco that had explicit tariff surcharges on them
Ok? This article is about Costco
It’s also generally about corporations receiving the tariff refunds and not us
No. That’s what we call “hijacking the thread”, which is just plain rude.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sorry, but you’re wrong here. Discussing the obvious implications (if CostCo wins, so does every other import company) is a natural thing to do in this location. If you don’t like it, don’t follow those threads.
The article literally says Costco is just the latest company to file suit and lists a bunch of other companies too
The article is literally about Costco. They throw in a single line at the very end about some other companies.
Yes it’s about Costco filing suit to get a refund for the tariffs they paid, just like every other company that filed the same suit as mentioned
It is not just about Costco it’s about corporations suing the government to get tariff refunds
Maybe. It depends on if they raised prices first to capture the losses. I know that seems like what a business would do first and what everyone predicted, but did they?
If it’s true, then Costco just needs to give away free hot dogs meals (drink and side) to their patrons for a year.
My small business did not raise prices, and recouping that $6k would make a HUGE difference for us. But I know most companies probably aren’t in the same boat.
Same here. We sold several computer systems at our original quoted price, and just ate the price increase from our vendors.
What do you think quoted price means…? That’s the risk you take when you quote stuff and prices change within the time they accept it.
Lots of material goods change prices daily.
Not holding up your original quoted price is how you lose business and your business in general. You seem to think that you can just choose to not hold up your end of the agreed upon contract? Yikes.
But hey, such a good business doing what you originally agreed to!
You are absolutely correct, and I should have been more specific.
Our quotes are good for 30 days, and we were outside of that time frame. We would have been within our right to adjust prices at that point.
The article states that Costco did not raise the prices on food staples imported from Central America.
So, they shouldn’t challenge the tariffs?
You didn’t actually read the article did you?
Maybe we need a class action saying the same