Amazon.com defeats appeal claiming it aided tariff evasion

By Jonathan Stempel

Wed, May 20, 2026 astatine 10:55 AM CDT 2 min read

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals tribunal connected Wednesday rejected a whistleblower's assertion that Amazon.com helped overseas fur manufacturers evade ‌tariffs connected products sold connected its platform, hurting home rivals.

The 2nd U.S. ‌Circuit Court of Appeals recovered nary impervious that Amazon knew oregon deliberately ignored that overseas manufacturers paid ​artificially debased tariffs by understating the worth of their shipments, and that the manufacturers evaded U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspection fees by omitting required forms and shipping done ports not overseen by that agency.

Mike Henig, the proprietor of Montgomery, Alabama-based Henig Furs, said ‌Amazon should person realized the ⁠foreign manufacturers were capable to complaint below-market prices by fraudulently avoiding import tariffs and fees betwixt 2007 and 2024, and violated the ⁠False Claims Act by shortchanging the national government.

But the New York-based appeals tribunal said determination could person been an "innocent explanation" for the little prices, specified arsenic economies of standard oregon ​lower ​labor costs.

"Below-market prices unsocial are truthful insufficient successful ​this lawsuit to amusement that ‌Amazon was alert of a important hazard that the overseas manufacturers were submitting mendacious claims," Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. The determination upheld a little tribunal judge's January 2025 dismissal.

Amazon is regularly sued by customers and businesses that question to clasp it liable for the behaviour of sellers connected its platform.

The Seattle-based ‌retailer's gross successful 2025 surpassed that of Walmart, ​long the world's largest retailer by revenue.

Lawyers for ​Henig did not instantly respond to ​requests for comment. Amazon and its lawyers did not instantly ‌respond to akin requests.

Amazon has besides faced ​other litigation implicit tariffs.

On ​Friday, consumers filed a projected people enactment accusing Amazon of failing to refund costs passed connected to them successful the signifier of higher prices, and ​which resulted from tariffs that ‌the U.S. Supreme Court recovered were imposed unlawfully by President Donald Trump. Many ​other companies including Costco, FedEx and Nike look akin lawsuits.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel ​in New York; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)