UPS and FedEx — the carriers that handle most consumer international shipments into the US — both began filing CAPE refund declarations with US Customs and Border Protection on April 21, 2026. For the millions of Americans who ordered from AliExpress, Shein, Temu, eBay, and other international sellers and paid IEEPA tariffs on their shipments, the carriers' action raises the obvious question: do I get my money back? The answer is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. If UPS or FedEx was the Importer of Record (IOR) on your shipment — common for consumer imports processed under informal entry — the refund technically flows to the carrier, not to you. Both companies have pledged to pass refunds through, but the mechanism, timing, and eligibility rules are not consumer-friendly. This guide walks through who actually gets refunded under CAPE, how UPS and FedEx plan to handle pass-throughs, what the Costco class action is seeking, and the realistic bottom line: most individual consumers will not receive a direct check.
What's Happening: Carriers File on Customers' Behalf
On April 21, 2026 — the day after CBP opened the CAPE refund portal — both UPS and FedEx confirmed they had begun submitting CAPE declarations for shipments where they served as the Importer of Record. For most consumer international orders, that's exactly who paid the tariff at the border: not the buyer in the US, not the seller overseas, but the carrier. UPS has publicly stated it will issue refunds to the original payor after receiving funds from CBP. FedEx has made a similar pledge to return tariff refunds to customers when received. Both carriers face CBP's 60-90 day processing window from declaration acceptance. Adding to the activity, Costco filed a class-action-adjacent lawsuit in November 2025 and has publicly said it will compensate affected members if the litigation produces refunds. The scale is enormous: Flexport estimates 63% of all IEEPA-paid entries qualify for Phase 1, and updated CBS News reporting puts the total refund pool at $175 billion — up from the initial $166 billion estimate — once statutory interest is included.
If UPS or FedEx Was Your Importer of Record
Most low-value consumer shipments from overseas move through informal entry procedures where UPS, FedEx, or DHL is the IOR by default. If you paid a customs duty line item on a package between April 5, 2025 and February 24, 2026, the money was almost certainly remitted to CBP under the carrier's importer number rather than yours. Action required from you: none. UPS and FedEx are filing CAPE declarations for these entries automatically. Once CBP accepts a declaration and processes the refund (60-90 days after acceptance), the carrier receives the funds via ACH and — per their public pledges — credits the refund back to the original payor. Watch your carrier account and email for refund notifications, account credits, or statement adjustments. Neither company has published a per-shipment claim portal for consumers yet; the pass-through is expected to flow automatically as funds come in from CBP.
If You Bought From a US Retailer Who Imported the Product
This covers the vast majority of consumer purchases — anything you bought on Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or through a US-based distributor. In these cases, the retailer or its wholesale importer was the IOR, and the tariff cost was embedded in the wholesale price you paid. The refund goes to that importer, not to you. Whether any of it reaches you depends entirely on the retailer's pricing decisions. A few large retailers — most visibly Costco — have pledged to compensate customers if and when refunds arrive. Most have made no such pledge. Realistically, IEEPA tariffs paid in 2025 are already baked into 2025-2026 retail prices; any refund impact is more likely to show up as modest price reductions in late 2026 and 2027 than as a check in the mail. This is the single biggest gap between the consumer-facing headlines and the actual mechanics of CAPE.
Rare Case: You Were the Importer of Record Yourself
A small number of consumers are IORs on their own shipments — typically because they imported a high-value item (a vehicle, specialty equipment, art, or collectibles) using a formal entry and filed their own 7501, or because they moved household goods internationally and handled the entry themselves. If that's you, you are treated like a small-business importer under CAPE Phase 1: you can file your own CAPE Declaration through the ACE Secure Data Portal, or hire a licensed broker to file on your behalf. You'll need an ACE account, ACH enrollment, and the entry numbers for every IEEPA-paid shipment you want refunded. The filing mechanics are the same as for commercial importers — see our main CAPE guide at /guides/ieepa-tariff-refund-how-to-claim-2026 for the step-by-step. Phase 1 rules still apply: only unliquidated entries or entries within 80 days of liquidation qualify.
Small Business Importers: Phase 1 Covers 63% of Entries
Small businesses that imported as IOR — direct-to-consumer brands, ecommerce sellers, independent distributors — are the core CAPE Phase 1 user base. Flexport estimates 63% of IEEPA-paid entries qualify for Phase 1; the remaining 37% are already liquidated past the 80-day protest window or are tied up in existing protests and must wait for Phase 2. Common mistakes causing declaration rejections in the first week: wrong entry numbers (typos in the 10-digit entry ID), including ineligible entry types (some Type 11 informal entries and drawback entries are currently excluded), and duplicate entry submissions across multiple declarations — once an entry is on an accepted declaration, it cannot be resubmitted on another. Brokers are reporting heavy volume and filing delays. Clean your entry data before you file: pull your 7501s, match them to payment records, confirm liquidation status for each, and only include entries that clearly qualify. One contaminated entry can trigger rejection of an entire declaration at the validation stage, costing you weeks on the 60-90 day clock.
Lawsuits vs. Direct Refunds: Don't Count on Either
Several class-action lawsuits have been filed by consumers seeking direct refunds from Costco, FedEx, and other companies that collected IEEPA-related tariff costs from end customers. These cases face significant legal hurdles — plaintiffs are trying to recover costs embedded in prices rather than duties they paid directly to the government — and even successful class actions will take years to resolve. If you were overcharged by a specific retailer and can document your purchases, joining a certified class is essentially free and worth doing for the optionality, but don't plan personal finances around a near-term recovery. The more realistic path to consumer savings is downstream: as retailers and importers receive their CAPE refunds through 2026-2027, competitive pressure should push some of that savings into lower retail prices, especially in commoditized categories like electronics accessories, apparel, and housewares where margins are thin and competition is intense.
Scale of the Refund: Up to $175 Billion
The headline numbers keep climbing. Initial Treasury estimates put the refund pool at $166 billion covering 330,000+ importers and 53 million shipments. Updated CBS News reporting now pegs the total at $175 billion once statutory interest is included. As of mid-April, 56,497 importers had pre-registered for ACH refunds representing $127 billion in expected payments — and new registrants continue to trickle in daily. This is the largest single tariff refund in US history, dwarfing the post-Byrd Amendment distributions of the 2000s. Carriers like UPS and FedEx are among the largest single claimants because of the volume of consumer shipments they handled as IOR during the IEEPA window. But because the money is being split across hundreds of thousands of importers — and because most consumer-facing refunds will flow through carriers and retailers rather than directly to buyers — the per-consumer impact, even if fully passed through, is modest in most categories.
What Consumers Should Do Now
Step 1: Check your UPS and FedEx account emails and shipment history. If you see 'Importer of Record: UPS' or 'FedEx Trade Networks' on a shipment from April 2025 through February 2026, you're in the automatic pass-through category — watch your account for credits over the next 3-4 months. Step 2: For purchases from Costco, Amazon, or any large retailer, read your email for refund announcements. Each company will handle this differently, and most will not announce pro-actively. Step 3: If you filed your own customs entry on a high-value import (rare), go straight to our main CAPE guide and start the filing process this week — the broker queue is already backing up. Step 4: For ongoing cost relief, track whether retailers in your regular categories (electronics, apparel, home goods) lower prices in late 2026; this is where the bulk of refund value will actually reach consumers. Step 5: Use our refund estimator at /tools/refund-estimator to see roughly how much was tariffed on your imports so you can monitor carrier pass-throughs against an expected number.
Key Takeaway
UPS and FedEx began filing CAPE declarations on April 21, 2026 for shipments where they were the Importer of Record. Both have pledged to pass refunds back to customers once CBP releases funds in 60-90 days — watch your carrier account for credits. If you bought from a US retailer, the refund flows to the retailer, not to you, and most retailers have not committed to passing any of it through. The largest consumer benefit from this $175B refund pool will come indirectly, through retail price adjustments in late 2026 and 2027, not through checks in the mail. Class-action lawsuits against Costco, FedEx, and others are ongoing but slow. If you were the Importer of Record on your own shipments, you can file through CAPE the same way a small business would — see our main CAPE guide for the step-by-step.
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