He fought Trump’s tariffs through the Supreme Court all the way to a refund

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN

(CNN) — Winning a landmark Supreme Court case against President Donald Trump’s most sweeping tariffs was one thing. Actually getting his illegally collected tariff money back from the government, though, was practically inconceivable to Victor Schwartz, owner of wine importer VOS Selections and the lead plaintiff in that case.

On Wednesday, it finally happened: Schwartz received a deposit from the government for $110,000, about 95% of the money he believes he’s owed.

“This is where the rubber meets the road. This is our win in real terms,” Schwartz told CNN.

Schwartz’s business is one of 330,000 who are due refunds on $168 billion worth of prior tariff payments after the Supreme Court overturned the bulk of Trump’s tariffs. US Customs and Border Patrol began to redistribute the funds to eligible businesses Tuesday.

After the Supreme Court verdict in February, a judge ordered CBP to quickly get a system up and running to issue refunds in a timely manner. CBP released a new portal to mostly automate the process for both importers and the government.

Once he got the hang of it, Schwartz found the portal to be “very well done,” adding that he didn’t have to manually “put any paperwork together” or contract outside help.

“The shoutout today goes to Customs and Border Protection,” Schwartz said on Wednesday.

But Schwartz was unable to confirm whether he also received interest the government was supposed to pay because the tariff refund receipt was not itemized.

The money Schwartz received will be put immediately toward paying suppliers for bills delayed in order to stay afloat.

What comes next

A handful of businesses, including Costco and Nike, are being sued by individual consumers who believe they are owed money back, too, since the companies passed on some of their tariff costs to consumers via higher prices.

CBP is only responsible for refunding the party listed on tariff entries. Companies can decide whether to provide any kind of relief to consumers, but it is logistically extremely complex for them to calculate exactly how much customers covered of the illegal levies.

That’s not the only major tariff case still being decided.

After the February Supreme Court verdict, Trump enacted a 10% tax across all global imports. The US Court of International Trade last week ruled that he lacked the legal authority to do. A federal appeals court this week reinstated the tariffs, pending its verdict.

Regardless, the 10% tariff is set to expire in July, at which point Trump would need the support of Congress to reimpose them.

The administration, though, is gearing up to unleash a slew of other levies under the auspices of a different law that many experts see as less legally dubious than the 10% tariff and the ones the Supreme Court reversed.

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