Forbes Highlights Arnold & Porter on Tariff Refund Litigation and Consumer Class Actions
Lori Leskin, head of Arnold & Porter’s consumer products practice, was quoted in the Forbes article, “Consumers Won’t See Tariff Refunds. Smart Retailers Will Turn Them Into Price Cuts,” examining the legal and business implications of $166 billion in tariff refunds owed to U.S. importers following a Supreme Court ruling invalidating Trump-era tariffs.
Lori emphasized the growing legal and reputational risks for businesses navigating tariff refunds, as well as increasing pressure from consumers demanding price relief. However, she noted that consumers seeking relief through class actions may face significant hurdles in proving their claims. She explained that plaintiffs will struggle to establish a consistent link between tariffs and price increases, given the wide variation in how companies absorbed or passed on tariff costs. “Every company has eaten the impact of the tariff situation differently,” Lori said. “There’s so many things that explain why prices go up, that it’s going to be very hard for a consumer to be able to establish consistency across an entirety of a class.”
The article also quotes from the Arnold & Porter advisory, “The Next Wave of Tariff Litigation: Consumer Class Actions,” which was authored by Lori, Brandon Neuschafer, and Elie Salamon, highlighting the expanding scope of potential litigation and warning that manufacturers, distributors, and logistics companies — not just retailers — could face exposure. “The initial wave of consumer class action complaints demonstrates that plaintiffs are not limiting their theories to explicit tariff line-items. The broader argument — that any company that passed through tariff costs must return corresponding refunds — has potentially sweeping implications for businesses.”
