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Amazon to give some consumers part of $600M tariff refund
E-commerce giant says it largely absorbed tariff costs
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon said it received about $600 million in tariff refunds during the second quarter and disclosed the amount during its earnings call.
- CFO Brian Olsavsky said the refund total was limited because Amazon stockpiled inventory and largely absorbed tariff-related costs instead of raising prices.
- Amazon said it will automatically reimburse affected customers when it can trace refunded import charges previously passed through under limited circumstances.
Amazon.com Inc. says it received about $600 million in tariff refunds during the second quarter and pledged to automatically issue reimbursements to consumers under a “limited set of circumstances.”
READ MORE: Amazon profit surges as AWS sales rise 37%
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky made the disclosure on a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s quarterly earnings. He said Amazon’s refund total was smaller than it might have otherwise been because the company stockpiled inventory in anticipation of tariffs. He also said Amazon was not the importer of record for most items sold in its store.
“In cases where we did see an increase in costs due to tariffs, we largely absorbed these costs rather than pass them on to customers,” Olsavsky said.
“We have identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we passed specific import charges onto customers, and when we receive those refunds, we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them,” Amazon’s finance chief said.
The U.S. government has begun issuing billions of dollars in refunds collected from importers after the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to impose some of the levies.
Walmart Inc. has said it would prioritize using tariff refunds to invest in prices. Costco Wholesale Corp. previously said it started submitting its refund claims and that it planned to return the proceeds to customers in some form. How much Costco can return and when would depend on a variety of factors, the company said.
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America, No. 15 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest private carriers and No. 1 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight companies.
