Amazon revealed Thursday that it has received $600 million in refunds after many of President Trump’s tariffs were struck down – and that it plans to return some of that cash to customers, one of the few major corporations to make such a commitment.
Amazon’s finance chief Brian Olsvavsky sketched the refund process during a Thursday earnings call.
“We’ve identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we’ve passed specific import charges onto customers, and when we receive those refunds, we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them,” he said.
“Otherwise, like other large retailers, we’ll utilize refunds to continue to invest in low prices for customers.”
Amazon executives have not shared details on how many customers are eligible for tariff refunds or when they can expect to receive the cash.
They also didn’t say which products were initially affected by the tariffs.
Amazon did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant had not previously confirmed whether or not it was applying for the tariff refunds.
Trump said earlier this year that he would “remember” and be “honored” if Amazon and other companies did not seek refunds.
The Supreme Court ruled in February that many of Trump’s tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegal, arguing that he exceeded his presidential authority to implement the new taxes.
In June, a slew of American companies saw cash land in their accounts as the US government rushed to disburse $49 billion worth of tariff refunds before the end of the month, as The Post reported.
As of July, US Customs and Border Protection, which is responsible for overseeing tariffs and tariff refunds, has paid out $70 billion of the $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs owed to companies.
Major US businesses including Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Nike, General Motors, FedEx and Costco, have all said they planned to apply for tariff refunds – though very few have pledged to share those payouts with customers who were hit with higher prices.
In April, Trump was asked whether he believes some companies, including Amazon, had not yet sought refunds because they were worried about “offending” him.
“Brilliant if they don’t do that,” the president said at the time. “I’m very honored by what you just said … If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them.”
Later that month, Amazon said it had ruled out a potential plan to display tariff surcharges on product listings on its site after founder Jeff Bezos reportedly got a furious phone call from Trump.
In May, Amazon was slapped with a class action lawsuit in Seattle federal court from customers who alleged they were owed refunds for paying tariff-inflated prices on Amazon goods – and that the company wasn’t seeking refunds to “curry favor” with the Trump administration.
On Thursday, Olsavsky said Amazon only received a “limited” refund amount in its second quarter because it had moved around its inventory ahead of time to prepare for the tariffs and that third-party sellers, who sell the majority of goods on Amazon, absorbed the bulk of the levies.
FedEx has announced that it will start issuing tariff refunds to customers in August, but most companies have pocketed the returns while Americans continue to face stubbornly high prices at stores.
