On 20 February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise the President to impose tariffs. Almost eight months later, CBP had accepted roughly $134.7 billion in potential and certified refunds as of 11 September and sent about $122 billion to the Treasury for payment. Fashion brands hold some of the largest individual claims, and Nike alone expects $986 million. FLJ’s 2025 column on fashion tariffs explains how those duties reached the industry. Which refund route an importer can use depends on the status of each entry.
What the Court Decided and What It Left Open
The Court held that IEEPA does not confer authority to impose tariffs, and Clark Hill’s analysis reads that holding to make every IEEPA tariff unlawful from the start. The majority opinion said nothing about refunds, and SCOTUSblog notes that Justice Kavanaugh’s dissent predicted the repayment process would be a “mess.”
The Court of International Trade then took over. On 4 March, Judge Richard Eaton ordered the government to refund virtually every importer that paid IEEPA duties, with interest. CBP answered that it faced an “unprecedented volume of refunds” its existing systems could not handle. The court ordered about $165 billion in refunds, and Judge Eaton then suspended his order to give CBP time to build a refund process in ACE. Weaver reports that the duties covered more than 53 million entries filed by over 330,000 importers.
How the CAPE System Works
CBP calls its refund tool CAPE, short for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, and it rolls out in phases. Phase 1 launched on 20 April 2026 and covers unliquidated entries and entries liquidated within the previous 80 days. Phase 2 followed on 29 June and added certain reconciliation-flagged entries. Phase 3 covers finally liquidated entries, the ones past the point where CBP can adjust them administratively, and CBP told the court it would deploy that phase on 6 October 2026.
Only the importer of record or its licensed customs broker can file. The filer needs an ACE Secure Data Portal account and ACH banking details enrolled for electronic payment, then uploads a CSV file of up to 9,999 entry numbers. CBP removes the IEEPA tariff lines, recalculates the duties and pays the difference with interest calculated under 19 CFR 24.36. CBP says refunds generally arrive 60 to 90 days after acceptance, and it offsets any debts the importer owes before it pays.
Post summary corrections cannot start an IEEPA refund claim. Importers must correct any entry data first and then file the CAPE declaration. CBP also warns about refund scams and tells importers to file only through ACE.
Where Refunds Stand
CBP’s 15 September declaration to the Court of International Trade gives the clearest figures. As of 11 September, CBP had received 286,044 CAPE declarations, and 201,293 passed file validation. Those declarations covered 27.2 million entries, and 19.94 million entries had been liquidated or reliquidated without IEEPA duties. Another 6.1 million entries failed entry-level checks, mainly because the entry date passed CBP’s 90-day reliquidation authority or the entry lacked the Chapter 99 tariff number used to assess IEEPA duties.
About 20,184 refunds worth roughly $1.3 billion had not gone out because the importer had not supplied ACH details. A brand that has not enrolled has an easy fix available.
The Problem of Finally Liquidated Entries
Importers with older entries face a harder road. Phase 3 reaches only plaintiffs in pending Court of International Trade cases whose entries the court ordered reliquidated, and Thompson Hine reports that they must have given CBP a valid importer of record number by 30 July 2026. The government has appealed the part of the order that would refund non-litigating importers on entries liquidated more than 80 days earlier. Troutman Pepper Locke explains that the appeals turn on whether such universal relief fits the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA, and that the government accepts refunds for existing plaintiffs under individual court orders.
An importer with finally liquidated entries that has not sued therefore has no administrative route today. Counsel should check each entry’s liquidation date and protest status and decide whether to file suit while the appeal runs. Members of Congress told CBP on 9 September that account-approval delays have pushed some small importers past the 90-day deadline for refund requests, a warning that applies to any brand still waiting for ACE access.
What Refunds Mean for Fashion Brands
Refunds already move large sums. Nike expects to recover $986 million in IEEPA refunds and had collected more than $300 million by the end of its fiscal year on 31 May. The expected recovery lifted its fourth-quarter gross margin to 49.2 percent.
Consumers have noticed. A class action filed against Nike in May alleges that the company raised footwear prices by $5 to $10 and apparel prices by $2 to $10 to cover the tariffs and now seeks to keep the refunds, according to WWD’s report on the suit. Lululemon faced a similar suit in March. Brands that recover duties should keep records of their pricing decisions during 2025 and early 2026, because plaintiffs will compare those prices with the refund amounts.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association urged expeditious refunds on the day of the ruling, and CBP’s system has since moved more than $120 billion toward payment. Each importer should confirm its ACE and ACH setup this week and sort its entries by liquidation status, since that status decides whether CAPE or a court case is the right path while the appeal runs.
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