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Costco Wholesale Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit seeking refunds of the tariffs it has paid on imported goods, becoming one of the largest U.S. companies to mount a direct legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s broad use of emergency powers to impose levies on foreign products.
The complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade, argues that Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 statute known as IEEPA, when he used it to justify tariffs on goods from more than 100 countries. Costco is asking the court to ensure that, if the Supreme Court ultimately strikes down the tariffs as unlawful, companies like Costco can recover the payments they have already made.
“The text of IEEPA does not use the word ‘tariff’ or any term of equivalent meaning,” the company states in the lawsuit, which was first reported by NBC News. While IEEPA grants a president the ability to regulate or prohibit certain foreign economic transactions during a national emergency, Costco argues it does not authorize tariff-setting — a power the Constitution assigns to Congress.
Administration officials defended the president’s approach. Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the “economic consequences of the failure to uphold President Trump’s lawful tariffs are enormous and this suit highlights that fact.” He added that the administration looks forward to “the Supreme Court’s speedy and proper resolution” of the broader tariff challenge.
The White House has previously said that its use of IEEPA is justified because the statute allows a president to “regulate” the “importation” of foreign property during an emergency, language it argues covers the imposition of tariffs.
Costco’s lawsuit echoes arguments raised by small importers who have already secured key lower-court victories. Companies including V.O.S. Selections, a wine and spirits importer, and Learning Resources, an educational toymaker, won rulings in federal courts finding Trump’s approach inconsistent with statutory limits. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month and is expected to decide in the coming months whether Trump’s tariff actions are lawful.
The uncertainty, Costco says, has destabilized markets and complicated business operations across the retail sector. The tariffs have been “threatened, modified, suspended, and reimposed, with the markets gyrating in response,” the company argues. The filing does not specify how much Costco has paid in tariffs since the measures took effect.
Trump has repeatedly claimed the tariffs have delivered “hundreds of billions of dollars” to the federal government, and administration officials warn that allowing refunds could have major fiscal consequences. But trade experts note that if the Supreme Court rules against the administration, other statutory tools exist that would allow a president to levy tariffs without relying on IEEPA — several of which Trump has already used in other trade actions.
