Amazon to share portion of $600M Trump tariff refund with select customers

Amazon [NASDAQ: AMZN] -1.64% Costco [NASDAQ: COST] -0.78% Target [NYSE: TGT] -0.40% Apple [NASDAQ: AAPL] -0.07% Walmart [NYSE: WMT] +0.49%

In February 2026, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump's tariffs, ruling that the government owes businesses $166 billion in tariff refunds. Now, company earnings calls at the end of the second quarter are revealing how much these companies have received as a result of the ruling — and what they intend to do with the windfall.

Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said in an earnings call that the company received $600 million in tariff refunds and plans to distribute a portion of the funds back to a small selection of customers who paid specific import charges as a result of the tariffs.

Limited Impact on Amazon

Olsavsky explained that the tariffs had a limited direct impact on Amazon, citing two key reasons:

• Forward buying: Amazon's teams pre-positioned inventory to avoid tariff costs.
• Third-party sellers: Amazon is not the importer of record for the majority of items sold in its store, as suppliers typically handle imports and pay relevant tariffs.

"In cases where we did see an increase in cost due to tariffs, we largely absorbed these costs rather than pass them on to customers," Olsavsky said.

Who Gets a Refund?

Amazon has remained vague about how much of the $600 million refund will go to customers, but stated it has identified "a limited set of circumstances" where import charges were passed on to customers.

"When we receive those refunds, we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them," Olsavsky said. "Otherwise, like other large retailers, we'll utilize refunds to continue to invest in low prices for customers."

Context: Price Increases and Competitors

From the start of 2025 up to September, Amazon's prices rose an average of 5.7%, according to CNBC. This was considerably higher than Walmart and Target, both of which saw a 1.7% price hike in the same period. However, Amazon's sales are driven by third-party sellers, which make up over 60% of all units sold and have also been affected by tariffs.

How Other Companies Compare

Amazon's refund is relatively limited compared to other large companies that claimed tariff refunds:

• Apple [NASDAQ: AAPL]: Announced that tariff refunds represented 2 percentage points of its 50.1% gross margin.
• Ford: Said in April it is set to receive $1.3 billion in tariff refunds.
• Walmart: Set to receive $2.4 billion in tariff refunds; executives plan to use the funds to "invest" — though details remain unclear.

Tariff Refunds Haven't Reached Consumers

Despite its limited refund, Amazon is one of the few companies that has announced an intention to directly refund customers affected by tariffs, however few these incidents may be.

This article originally appeared on MoneyWise.