By Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton
The Seattle Times
(TNS)
Consumers who bought video games and consoles from Nintendo of America during the Trump tariff era want the company to forfeit their gold, according to a recent lawsuit.
The proposed class action complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington claims Nintendo hasn’t made a plan to return money paid by customers to satisfy the now-illegal duties implemented by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The company, which is headquartered in Redmond, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. It’s a subsidiary of Japanese video game company Nintendo.
“Nintendo stands to recover the same tariff payments twice—once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds,” lawyers at labor law firm Emery Reddy and several other firms wrote in the complaint.
They didn’t immediately respond to an interview request.
Costco was slapped with a similar lawsuit in March.
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The latest complaint, brought by plaintiffs Gregory Hoffert in California and Seattle resident Prashant Sharan, aims to represent millions of buyers of Nintendo products who shopped there when the tariffs were active from Feb. 1, 2025, through Feb. 24, 2026. They’re looking for restitution and other relief.
After President Donald Trump began levying duties on foreign trading partners in February 2025—using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as justification—Nintendo was among the importers that raised its prices in response, per the lawsuit.
“Nintendo manufactures all of its products outside of the United States in places such as China, Vietnam, and Cambodia,” the complaint said. “Imported goods therefore account for all of Nintendo’s retail sales in the United States.”
For instance, in April 2025, Nintendo announced that its accessories for the Switch 2 video game console would see price differences “due to changes in market conditions.
The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the tariffs in February. The next month, Nintendo brought the issue before the U.S. Court of International Trade in the form of a lawsuit, pressing for refunds for duties.
Now, businesses should receive those rebates from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to the Supreme Court decision.
The federal agency went live with its first phase of the tariff refund portal on Monday. However, national media reports show importers and brokers have faced difficulties filing claims through the new system.
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Nintendo’s latest earnings show the company saw a 51% jump in net profit for the first three quarters of fiscal 2026, compared with the same time period last year. It also bore a rise in total liabilities.
Photo credit: Pyrenil/Wikipedia
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© 2026 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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