On 8 October 2026, Judge Richard K. Eaton of the Court of International Trade certified a nationwide importer class in Freestyle World, Inc. v. CBP, the IEEPA refund class action that now covers every importer of record that paid the challenged duties between 1 February 2025 and 19 February 2026 without suing on its own. The opinion and order grants class certification and appoints class counsel. It does not order a refund.
Eaton wrote that the court certifies the class “in the hope, and expectation, that this certification will lead to the liquidation or reliquidation of all of the entries on which the unlawful IEEPA duties were imposed, and the refund of those duties to the importers of record that paid them.”
Membership follows the name on the entry
The court’s definition reads “all importers of record who paid duties imposed by the Challenged Tariff Orders” in that window, “excluding any entity that has separately filed an action seeking to recover IEEPA duties payments.” Lieberman PLLC says a buyer that bore the cost through a delivered-duty-paid price or a marketplace is not the importer of record, and that where a supplier held that role, the refund, if any, belongs to the supplier and the buyer’s remedy, if any, lies in its contract. Lieberman’s first step is to pull the entry summaries (CBP Form 7501) and ACE reports and confirm that the importer-of-record number on each entry is yours. If the answer is unclear, check who counts as importer of record before anything else.
Membership in the IEEPA refund class action is mandatory. The opinion says a Rule 23(b)(2) class “does not permit a potential class member to either opt in or opt out,” and Lieberman adds that members are bound by the outcome, a settlement included. A suit of your own takes the importer out of the class under the definition’s wording, and Leyton calls that effectively the only way to leave.
Certification pays nothing until a class-wide order issues
CAPE, the CBP refund module in ACE, had refunded about $126 billion in duties and interest as of 2 October, according to the court’s opinion. The court put what remains at roughly $30 billion that would sit in the Treasury if CAPE stopped today, and it wrote of “tens of thousands of importers of record” who will not be refunded unless their entries are liquidated or reliquidated. The court points to two groups behind that number: importers it believes are overwhelmingly small and unaware of CAPE, and finally liquidated entries (liquidated more than 90 days ago, while Leyton counts entries older than 80 days as the group that needs a suit), which CBP says it cannot reopen without a court order. CAPE Phase 3, deployed on 6 October, processes them only for importers that sued and hold their own reliquidation order.
Class members get none of that today.
A closed settlement conference is set for 27 October, and the court asked the government for a CAPE progress report due on 26 October. What stands between certification and money is an injunction directing CBP to reliquidate, and practitioners cited by Lieberman do not expect one before the government answers the class complaint. The date for that answer will sit in a joint scheduling order, and the court’s docket entry of 23 October moved the filing deadline from 22 October to 5 November. How CBP would process class entries (through CAPE, automated mass reliquidation or an IOR-number submission like the one individual plaintiffs make) is undecided. The government opposed certification at every stage, and its separate appeal of the universal refund orders is pending at the Federal Circuit, where Lieberman says the universal order is stayed as to non-filers. As of 19 October it had not appealed the certification itself, and Diaz Trade Law expects that it will, so that the class route could take months, if not years. Under USCIT Rule 23(f) the government has 45 days from the 8 October order to ask the Federal Circuit for permission, YLK Trade Law notes, and the CIT proceedings would not stop automatically while it does.
Some IEEPA payments never entered the class definition
The case was filed before the Supreme Court decided Learning Resources v. Trump, so the class defines “Challenged Tariff Orders” as the orders the Federal Circuit held unlawful in V.O.S. Selections, as the opinion’s first footnote records. Lieberman PLLC reads that to leave out the separate IEEPA tariffs later imposed on goods from Brazil and India, and duties paid after 19 February, which practitioners say were still collected through 23 February. A different class motion in V.O.S. Selections, argued on 6 August, was still pending in the 16 to 19 October commentary, and the opinion says the remedy sought there would give CAPE access to more types of entries.
Large claims carry the cost of waiting
For importers with large refunds on finally liquidated entries, the Diaz Trade Law analysis says to file a case of your own and reach Phase 3 now. The firm reports that David Craven put normal class counsel fees at 20% to 35%, which he called far more than most companies would pay to bring their own case. How any fee would be handled in this IEEPA refund class action has not been decided.
One firm active in the litigation reports to Lieberman PLLC that the court has been entering individual orders within about four business days of filing, Leyton adds “absent pleading errors,” and YLK Trade Law cautions that an individual action guarantees neither a refund nor immediate access to Phase 3. Lieberman allows the other reading for modest claims: an importer with small payments under the reciprocal or trafficking tariffs may find the class the economically sensible path.
The February 2027 clock runs regardless
Suits to recover IEEPA duties at the CIT carry a two-year limit under 28 U.S.C. § 2636(i), and Leyton places the earliest deadlines in early February 2027: DWT cites 4 February, Faegre Drinker uses 1 February. Whether class membership pauses that clock for importers who later file individually has not been resolved for these claims, and the certification order does not address it. Diaz Trade Law advises calendaring the deadline as if the class did not exist.
Diaz Trade Law’s list for this week starts with an ACE report of IEEPA entries split into unliquidated, recently liquidated and finally liquidated lines. The total on the last group drives the file-or-wait decision.