GoKawiilA proposed class action has accused Costco of unjust enrichment after the retail giant allegedly made customers pay for tariffs, then planned to pocket the full refund after they were deemed unlawful.
Costco “collected the tariff costs from consumers through elevated pricing, while simultaneously seeking refunds of the same tariff payments from the federal government,” the complaint alleged. Unless the court intervenes, “Costco stands to recover the same tariff payments twice.”
Filed in a US District Court in Washington, the lawsuit points to public statements from Costco executives that customers said made it clear that the company had raised prices on some goods while the tariffs were in effect. But the company has since offered “no legally binding commitment to return tariff-related overcharges to the consumers who actually paid them.”
Instead of reimbursing the customers who paid more for goods, Costco said on a March 2026 earnings call that it plans to use tariff refunds to lower future prices.
That plan enraged customers who joined Costco based on the proposition that Costco would operate on the slimmest possible margins to ensure they never pay more for goods than Costco can afford to sell them.
Accusing Costco of seeking a “windfall” from tariff refunds, the customers sued on behalf of “millions of consumers who purchased goods from Costco during the tariff period and who paid inflated prices” that Costco executives explicitly linked to the “evolving environment with tariffs.”
“The potential refund pool resulting from the invalidation” of the tariffs is “enormous,” customers argued. Costco “has already recouped tariff costs from consumers through higher prices, and it now stands in line to recover those same unlawful tariff payments from the federal government.”