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fuoqi 8 hours ago

Let the fun of returning hundreds of billions of the illegal tariff revenue back to importers through litigation begin!

sowbug 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Will I get back the $17 DHL charged to collect the $1 tariff on the cat toys I bought from China?

Actual event may not have occurred, but DHL flat fee is real.

cmurf 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Send a letter requesting a full refund.

If they refuse, sue them in small claims court.

fuoqi 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sure, if you are ready to sue the US government for that. /s

I dunno if a class-action lawsuit is realistic or not in this case or how likely a court decision stating that all tariff revenue must be refunded.

SV_BubbleTime 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Were cat toys not made in the US? Especially if you were to factor and $18 delta?

Sorry, but tariffs on aluminum or steel that is only made in China or microchips or components. I think that’s a valid discussion to have. … you’re complaining about disposable cat toys that were likely made in a sweat shop where the workers were not making a livable wage and then putting in a container on a ship burning crude oil and pushed around the world so you can have some junk that was a couple dollars cheaper than a domestic option?

Not the same thing.

leopoldj 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"The ruling was silent on whether tariffs that have been paid under the higher rates will need to be refunded." - from CNBC

fuoqi 8 hours ago | parent [-]

This is why I mentioned "litigation" in my comment, i.e. you probably would need to separately sue the government if you want to refund the tariffs.

jeromegv 8 hours ago | parent [-]

That's not how it works.

There is a normal process in place for importers/brokers to request refunds if a specific tariff was overpaid or a tariff was ruled to be illegal.

But if you imported through DHL and you were not the broker, that is more complicated, you might need to ask DHL for it, and they might not want to do it for you (as they don't have a standard process in place).

Ccecil 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Drawback claims (assuming this is the correct thing to use) are quite difficult to do. Requires a customs broker. You used to be able to file them manually as a normal person but they ended that when the first 25% tariffs on China went into play. You need to be a customs broker to get access to the software you need to file the claim...

I spent a bit of time attempting to find a broker [1] to handle this for our project (since we had a large amount of eligible refunds due to importing then sending out of country after QA) but in the long run gave up...which is what they hope for.

Keeping an eye on all this to see how it plays out.

[1] Not only did I look for a broker but I debated becoming one myself due to this.

rkagerer 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I would love for a self-service broker to materialize.

i.e. Where you upload your paperwork, fill in and certify the forms online, make a payment, and the broker just feeds all that through. You do the work, they're just your gateway to the system.

I've used courier's internal brokers (like DHL/UPS offer, at their ripoff rate), professional private brokers, etc. and seen all of them make stupid mistakes costing me money/time (eg. including the shipping cost in value for duties, transposing the wrong currency at face value, etc). I could do a better job myself, and frankly with a decent portal it would take me less time. Heck I bet I could build a fairly automated system that is more efficient (higher-margin) and accurate.

Here in Canada there's new legislation that even if you use a third party broker, you still need to post a security or bond with CBSA (see CARM) maintained on an annual basis. It boggles my mind they made the infrastructure to deal with money from all the individual buyers, but not a self-service portal to deal with the forms. Self-clearing here still entails a physical visit to a CBSA office.

fuoqi 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You assume that the executive branch would willingly follow the court decision. I think it's naive (doubly so for the current administration) and it's more likely that the tariffs will be re-introduced under a different sauce and that refund requests will not be processed using some flimsy excuses.

keernan 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The tariffs were paid by the ultimate consumer. Importers that sue will have a difficult time proving actual damages.

rapnie 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Trillions even, according to some sources.

krapp 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Don't worry, DOGE saved us so much money it won't even matter /s.

ycsux 8 hours ago | parent [-]

The national debt went up by $2.5T since Feb 2025, keep up the DOGE work

zeroonetwothree 6 hours ago | parent [-]

But without DOGE it would have gone up $2.51T