The wholesaler is the latest company to file a lawsuit against a federal agency over the president’s signature economic policy.
Costco Wholesale has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking the Court of International Trade to consider all tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act unlawful.
The company said in a Nov. 28 filing that it is seeking a “full refund” of all IEEPA duties paid as a result of Donald Trump’s executive order which imposed what he called “reciprocal” tariffs.
“Because IEEPA does not clearly authorize the President to set tariffs…the Challenged Tariff Orders cannot stand and the defendants are not authorized to implement and collect them,” Costco’s lawyer writes in the lawsuit.
Global cosmetics giant Revlon, eyeglass maker EssilorLuxottica, motorcycle manufacturer Kawasaki, canned foods seller Bumble Bee, Japanese auto supplier Yokohama Tire and many smaller firms have also filed similar suits
This is how they transfer wealth from consumers to corporations
We pay the tariffs Corporations get the tariff refund
Trickle up economics as usual
Isn’t corporate profit at the expense of the consumers like … the whole point of capitalism?
From the article:
In May, on Costco’s earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip told investors that about a third of Costco’s sales in the U.S. are imported products. Millerchip said items imported from China represented about 8% of total U.S. sales.
Millerchip said that while Costco was seeing a direct impact from tariffs on imports of some fresh food items from Central and South America, it decided not to increase prices “because they are key staple items” for its customers.
Some of those fresh food items included pineapples and bananas. “We essentially held the price on those to make sure that we’re protecting the member,” he said.
In September, Millerchip told analysts: “We continue to work closely with our suppliers to find ways to mitigate the impact of tariffs, including moving the country of production where it makes sense and consolidating our buying efforts globally to lower the cost of goods across all our markets.”
Honestly, that’s pretty decent of them.
That’s great but only represents Costco. I purchased a lot of things not from Costco that had explicit tariff surcharges on them
Ok? This article is about Costco
It’s also generally about corporations receiving the tariff refunds and not us
Maybe. It depends on if they raised prices first to capture the losses. I know that seems like what a business would do first and what everyone predicted, but did they?
If it’s true, then Costco just needs to give away free hot dogs meals (drink and side) to their patrons for a year.
My small business did not raise prices, and recouping that $6k would make a HUGE difference for us. But I know most companies probably aren’t in the same boat.
deleted by creator
What do you think quoted price means…? That’s the risk you take when you quote stuff and prices change within the time they accept it.
Lots of material goods change prices daily.
Not holding up your original quoted price is how you lose business and your business in general. You seem to think that you can just choose to not hold up your end of the agreed upon contract? Yikes.
But hey, such a good business doing what you originally agreed to!
deleted by creator
There’s a difference between lamenting the reality of honoring a quote after things change and wishing you didn’t need to. They’re saying they wish the government would pay them back for the tariff, not that they wish they could’ve passed it on to the customer.
So they want the government to fix a regular issue with quoted work…? The price is expected to change, that’s why you quote to begin with…. It’s likely they don’t even know how their system works.
That’s even worse lmfao.
It’s quoted work, it’s volatile already, and the customers game it if they know the material goods in going down. Don’t like it? Don’t quote work. It’s not even a relevant detail to their gripe, just bitching for the sake of bitching at this point.
The price would be different with or without tariffs, but complain without realizing how the system works I guess.
Going through my past three days of comments and down voting them all doesn’t help your argument.
They aren’t just saying “wahhh government, pwease pay the difference of this quote” they’re specifically replying to a thread about a company suing the government for tariff reimbursements and talking about a tariff making the price go up after the quote.
You didn’t actually read the article did you?
Maybe we need a class action saying the same
It’s gross that I have a single good thought about an abomination like Costco. It’s like cheering for Franco to overthrow Hitler.
Why are you opposed to Costco? My understanding was they’re one of the few ethical businesses. Costco has stayed committed to inclusiveness unlike Walmart/Target; and has a good relation with their union. The only strike against them I heard of was them no longer stocking Plan B, but I think that’s more because it’s a prescription drug in a big-box retailer. Their model of bulk-packaging at a discount should be real valuable for struggling USAmericans, especially families.
one of the few ethical businesses.
Unfortunately, while they ultimately capitulated to the union at the last minute, they were still pulling union-busting shit like this in the run up. Costco isn’t magically the one moral business, they’re just broadly less openly shitty to their workers than other warehouses (amazon, target, etc.). They’re also a lot better about PR than most of the other big companies, which is why most people never hear about this but everyone has heard about the “don’t change the price of the hotdog” thing.
Bro some people just love to hate. These are the same kind of people who think Bernie Sanders is a traitor to the left for not bad mouthing Biden or some. They can’t see a good thing and appreciate it for what it is.
The notion that Costco is providing a benefit to families is grotesque. They were just in on the ground floor of destroying our socio-economic fabric. A world full of Costcos is just a different capitalist hellscape.
I’m basically done with the “better is better” argument…it’s a false dichotomy. It’s why I compare Costco to Franco: at least Franco didn’t do a holocaust.
ELI5: What so you mean by “better is better”? And what is it about Costco that is so bad?
Sorry, I’m referring to the “better is better” argument many so-called liberals make: where we’re presented with a false choice and make apologies for one of the bad choices. Democrats v Republicans is an example. In this case it’s Destructive capitalism v Nuclear Capitalism. I just can’t say nice things about Costco because they’re part of the continuum of late stage capitalism that lead to what we’re seeing today.
deleted by creator
Franco did do the Allies a bit of a solid by not hooking up with Hitler. Britain would have lost Gibraltar and then all of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Hitler wouldn’t have needed to waste so much military strength in the theater and could have concentrated more on the Soviets (and started Barbarossa earlier in the year). Even their fucking jets would have worked a lot better.
Yeap.
But Franco was still Franco…with his own purges, massacres, and various other fascisms.
Sure, fascists gonna fasc.
deleted by creator
Tbh that’s pretty based. Solid move, Costco.
But also, why are the the first large company to do this?
Walmart switch to electronic price tags making more sense now, to quickly manipulate prices on every taco maneuver
It so they can profile you and adjust their pricing depending on how wealthy you are and if you really need the product. Dynamic pricing is coming and it’s going to be brutal. They’re not collecting these enormous datasets on every household for marketing only.
I just don’t see that happening when we have Shipt and Instantcart. Will they be profiling the shopper or the shoppers customer? Will we have professional “shoppers” that get discounts for their customers? Amazon tried the regional pricing long ago and it didn’t go over well for them.
“reciprocal tariffs”
He just pre-reciprocal-ed the tariffs before the other countries.
I came here to post this article. Glad I searched before posting. Dear Costco, please fuck the Trump administration anally with the barbed wire wrapped dildo of courtroom justice.
What aisle can I find that on? Asking for myself.
Are you one of those people that thinks the Epstein files are going to bring Trump down too? Whem you own the justice system it just lies there and licks your filthy taint.
Good on Costco but at best this will maybe minimize the number of card carrying klan rednecks that shop there and thats about it.
I’m cynical enough to believe that nothing will come of the files, but deep down in my core there is a tiny piece of hope.
