Nintendo Sued Over Tariff Price Hikes: Lawsuit Says Customers Should Get the Refund

Nintendo of America is being sued by two of its own customers, who say the company is about to get paid twice for the same tariff money — once by raising prices on shoppers, and again when the U.S. government refunds it.

The proposed class action was filed on April 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington by Gregory Hoffert of California and Prashant Sharan of Seattle. They want a court to force Nintendo to pass any tariff refund it receives back to the customers who actually paid for it through inflated prices.

Here's the backstory. After the Trump administration imposed sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act starting in February 2025, Nintendo — which manufactures its products in China, Vietnam, and Cambodia — raised prices in the U.S. The Switch 2 Pro Controller went from $79.99 to $84.99. The Switch 2 Dock Set jumped from $109.99 to $119.99. Then in August 2025, Nintendo hiked the original Switch lineup too: the Switch Lite went up $30, the Switch went up $40, and the Switch OLED went up $50.

In a May 2025 financial briefing, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told investors directly that the company's policy is to treat tariffs as a cost and incorporate them into pricing.

In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled those tariffs were unconstitutional. Nintendo then filed its own lawsuit in March 2026 demanding a refund with interest from the U.S. government. That refund process started this week — U.S. Customs and Border Protection is now distributing roughly $166 billion across more than 330,000 importers.

The lawsuit argues that since customers were the ones who actually paid the tariff costs through higher prices, Nintendo keeping the refund would be unjust enrichment.

When asked whether it planned to pass the refund along to customers, Nintendo gave a non-committal response saying only that it had filed a request and had nothing else to share.

A nearly identical lawsuit was filed against Costco last month, and roughly two dozen similar cases have been filed against companies including FedEx and Lululemon.

Who Could Be Eligible

The proposed class covers anyone in the United States who bought Nintendo products between February 1, 2025 and February 24, 2026 — the period when tariffs were active and prices were inflated. This includes Switch 2 accessories, original Switch hardware, and other affected products.

What's Next

There's no settlement yet. The case was just filed and still needs to be certified as a class action before anything moves forward.

Download ClassyAction to track this case and get notified when the payout drops.