$166 Billion, 330,000 Importers, and One Judge: Inside the Largest Customs Refund Action in U.S. History

The mechanics of the refund process are, by any measure, unprecedented. Customs and Border Protection has confirmed that it collected approximately $166 billion in duties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act from more than 330,000 distinct importers of record, spread across more than 53 million individual entries. Every one of those entries is now, in principle, subject to refund — and every importer now faces a set of procedural decisions that will determine whether they recover, how quickly, and with what interest.

At the center of the process is Senior Judge Richard K. Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade, to whom the Chief Judge has assigned every IEEPA-related refund case filed at the Court. More than 2,000 such cases have already been filed, and additional actions are being docketed each week. Judge Eaton's initial order, issued March 4, 2026 in Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States and now operating through the successor lead case Euro-Notions Florida, Inc. v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, directs CBP to liquidate all unliquidated entries — and reliquidate non-final liquidated entries — without regard to IEEPA duties.

What remains uncertain is the treatment of entries that have already finally liquidated without a protest on file. CBP's Phase 1 rollout, which went live yesterday, covers an estimated 63% of affected entries. The balance will be handled in a subsequent phase, the timing of which remains undetermined and subject to anticipated appeals from the Department of Justice.

For importers, the distinction matters. Entries that moved through liquidation months before the Supreme Court ruled may sit outside the 180-day protest window. Those importers will depend either on the CIT's expansive reading of its own remedial authority — a reading the government has signaled it will contest on appeal — or on legislative intervention such as the pending Tariff Refund Act of 2026. Counsel with experience in customs protest procedure, 28 U.S.C. § 1581(a) jurisdictional analysis, and class action practice are, predictably, in short supply.

This publication has been established to serve that gap. Our editorial desk tracks CIT filings and CBP guidance daily. Our companion marketplace, Commerce Justice Alliance, connects importers with verified tariff refund counsel on a matched-fit basis — the first clearinghouse of its kind for trade-side refund work. Begin an intake here.