The U.S. Court of International Trade has certified a class of importers suing the federal government for refunds of the unlawful IEEPA tariffs, opening a path to recover roughly $30 billion in duties Customs has yet to return.

On Thursday, the New York-based court approved the plaintiffs' petition to proceed as a class. The group covers importers who paid into the duty scheme between Feb. 1, 2025 and Feb. 19, 2026 — the day before the Supreme Court struck the tariffs down — and excludes parties that filed their own separate lawsuits. More than 4,000 IEEPA-related suits have been filed to date.

For apparel and soft goods importers that paid the emergency tariffs on entries from China, Canada and Mexico during the 12-month window, class membership shifts the refund question from individual litigation to a single collective track.

How much money is still outstanding?

Customs and Border Protection has processed about $130 billion of the approximately $166 billion owed, using the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system it built and deployed in the spring. That leaves roughly $30 billion in unlawfully collected duties still in Treasury custody.

CIT Judge Richard K. Eaton, in a slip order, warned that voluntary use of CAPE alone will not finish the job.

"Progress on liquidation and reliquidation, by importers' voluntary use of CAPE, will one day come to an end," Eaton wrote.

Why did the judge back class certification?

Eaton pointed to two gaps in the refund machinery. First, some importers of record have not used CAPE to request refunds. He wrote these are likely "overwhelmingly small importers who, because of the cost or effort involved in filing a CAPE declaration, or because they are unaware of the program, will never take advantage of CAPE."

Second, CAPE has structural limits: it does not accept certain entry categories, including finally liquidated entries from importers that have not brought their own lawsuits.

"Should further action not be taken, we are left with the prospect of the U.S. Department of the Treasury… retaining billions of dollars of unlawfully collected duties, and tens of thousands of importers of record being denied the liquidation or the reliquidation of their entries," the judge wrote. Without those liquidations, "these tens of thousands of importers will not receive the refunds they are owed."

Eaton framed certification as a route to close the gap. "Today, the court is certifying a class in the hope, and expectation, that this certification will lead to the liquidation or reliquidation of all of the entries on which the unlawful IEEPA duties were imposed, and the refund of those duties to the importers of record that paid them," the order said.

What does certification actually change?

Not much immediately. The ruling does not expand refund eligibility or guarantee direct payment, and class members still need a favorable outcome on the merits.

"It does, however, create a potential path forward for non-litigants, toward a single order requiring refunds to be issued to importers that have not pursued individual lawsuits," James Kim, international trade partner at ArentFox Schiff, wrote on LinkedIn.

What happens next?

Counsel for the importers and the government are scheduled to meet in a closed-door conference on Tuesday. After that, both sides have until Oct. 22 to agree on a proposed schedule, including a deadline for the government's response to the complaint.

For sourcing teams, the decision forces a records check: any importer of record that paid IEEPA duties between February 2025 and February 2026 and has not filed suit or a CAPE declaration should now confirm entry-level duty data — entry numbers, liquidation status, amounts paid — before the class process sets its claims schedule. Small importers that skipped CAPE over filing costs stand to gain the most from the class route, since a single order could trigger refunds without separate litigation.