Consumers allege Nike raised prices to offset $1 billion in tariffs but has made no commitment to return the money
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Nike $NKE faces a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Friday by consumers who say the athletic apparel and footwear company collected higher prices to offset tariff costs but has not committed to returning those charges now that refunds are available.
The complaint, lodged in a Portland, Oregon federal court, alleges that Nike stands to pocket the same tariff dollars from two separate sources — first by charging customers inflated prices and then by claiming refunds through a federal portal established following a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the IEEPA-based tariffs President Donald Trump had put in place. Nike said it paid about $1 billion in tariffs on imported goods. Consumers in the suit allege Nike raised footwear prices by $5 to $10 and apparel prices by $2 to $10 to offset those costs.
"Nike has made no legally binding commitment to return tariff-related overcharges to the consumers who actually paid them," the complaint said. "Unless restrained by this court, Nike stands to recover the same tariff payments twice — once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds."
Nike did not respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit places Nike alongside other retailers — including Costco $COST and EssilorLuxottica, which manufactures Ray-Ban sunglasses — that are facing consumer litigation over their handling of potential tariff refunds.
The lawsuit is part of a broader pattern. Most Americans are not expected to receive direct refunds from the federal portal, which can only be used by companies that acted as importers of record — not by individual consumers. The portal was launched after a trade court judge ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create a refund system, with the Trump administration given until June 7 to appeal. That means the earliest any refunds could be issued is June or July.
A Money review of major companies found that most have declined to address the question of customer refunds publicly. Of the large corporations surveyed, FedEx $FDX, UPS, and DHL stood out as the only ones to make explicit commitments — pledging to return tariff payments to customers for shipments on which those carriers served as the importer of record. At a March earnings call, Costco's chief executive Ron Vachris indicated the retailer intended to channel any refunds it received into pricing for members rather than issuing direct payments — a position that has not shielded the company from its own class-action lawsuit over the issue.
Nike has dealt with tariff issues before. On a March 31 earnings call, company executives said they expect the impact of tariffs on their gross margin to end by the August 2026 fiscal quarter, compared to the previous year.
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