IEEPA Tariff Refunds Update: CAPE Phase 3, the New Class Action, and What Changes for Finally Liquidated Entries
If your entries liquidated more than 80 days ago, you may have heard two things in the past few weeks. One is that CBP opened "Phase 3" of its refund system. The other is that the Court of International Trade certified a class action covering importers who paid IEEPA duties. Both are true. Neither one means a refund is on its way for every older entry.
The short answer: IEEPA tariff refunds on finally liquidated entries are still possible, but the path is narrower than the headlines suggest. As of October 21, 2026, CBP processes those refunds through CAPE only for importers of record that are plaintiffs in their own pending CIT case and have a reliquidation order from the court. The class certification may eventually open a broader route. The court hasn't ordered class-wide relief yet.
What does CAPE Phase 3 do, and who is it for?
CBP's Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system has rolled out in phases. Phases 1 and 2, deployed April 20 and June 29, 2026, covered unliquidated entries, entries within 80 days of liquidation, and reconciliation-flagged entries. Those phases weren't limited to importers that had sued. If you're still sorting out the earlier phases, see our Phase 1 overview for importers of Chinese goods.
Phase 3 deployed October 6, 2026. CBP announced it in a September 15, 2026 declaration to the CIT by Brandon Lord, CBP's Executive Director of Trade Programs. Phase 3 covers entries liquidated for more than 80 days, the "finally liquidated" entries. Its eligibility is far tighter than the earlier phases. It's open only to importers of record that are plaintiffs in a pending IEEPA refund case at the CIT and for whom the court has issued a reliquidation order.
The CIT's July 17, 2026 order authorized CBP to process refunds for importers that filed cases, and that order is what made Phase 3 possible. A plaintiff importer also has to have submitted a valid importer of record number to CBP. Plaintiffs that did so by July 30, 2026 could begin filing on October 6. Later submitters follow a later timeline that depends on when CBP accepted the number.
The plaintiff-only limit comes from CBP's position, supported by the Department of Justice, that it can't refund finally liquidated entries without a court order covering the specific importer. On June 2 and 3, 2026, the government appealed the CIT's broader refund orders to the Federal Circuit, challenging the court's authority to order refunds for importers that didn't sue. That appeal is still pending.
The amounts involved are large. As of early October 2026, CBP had accepted about $136.6 billion in potential and certified refunds into CAPE and transmitted about $126 billion to Treasury. CBP's own earlier estimate put the finally liquidated pool at about $11.4 billion, roughly 6.9% of IEEPA duties.
What does the October 8 class certification do, and what doesn't it do?
On October 8, 2026, in Freestyle World, Inc. v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Court No. 26-01088, Judge Richard K. Eaton certified a class under USCIT Rule 23(b)(2). The certified class is:
"All importers of record who paid duties imposed by the Challenged Tariff Orders between February 1, 2025, and February 19, 2026, excluding any entity that has separately filed an action seeking to recover IEEPA duties payments."
Footnote 1 of the opinion defines "Challenged Tariff Orders" as the orders the Federal Circuit held unlawful. The full slip opinion is available from the CIT.
The class seeks an injunction directing CBP to liquidate or reliquidate all entries without regard to IEEPA duties. Certification isn't a refund order, and no class-wide injunction has issued. The court was candid about where it hopes this goes. It wrote that it was "certifying a 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."
The court also noted that individual importers have brought more than 4,000 lawsuits, and that if CAPE stopped functioning, approximately $30 billion in unlawfully collected duties would stay on deposit in the Treasury. That figure and CBP's $11.4 billion estimate likely differ because of measurement date and definition, so don't read either one as the size of your share.
The court set a conference for October 13, 2026 and ordered the parties to submit a proposed scheduling order by October 22, 2026, including the date the government will answer the complaint. As of October 19, 2026, the government hadn't appealed the certification order. Several trade counsel expect it to seek appellate review. Class actions are rare at the CIT, so there's little precedent for how this one will move.
Should you file your own case or wait for the class?
Under the class definition, an importer that files its own CIT case is excluded from the class as currently defined. Filing takes you out of it.
Several trade law firms see an individual case as the surer and faster route today, for a concrete reason: it's the only route CAPE Phase 3 currently recognizes. Waiting in the class costs nothing to file. It also carries no right to payment yet, and the class's timeline depends on a scheduling order that isn't set and a government appeal that may still come.
The variables that usually drive the decision are the size of the finally liquidated refund at stake, what an individual case will cost relative to that amount, how much the timing of the money matters to your business, and whether you're comfortable giving up class membership in exchange for access to Phase 3. A large refund with a cash-flow need points one way. A small refund where the cost of a case would eat a meaningful share of the recovery may point the other. Many importers fall somewhere in between, and the answer can change as the class case and the Federal Circuit appeal develop.
Who may fall outside the class?
Commentators have flagged two possible gaps. The court hasn't ruled on either.
The first is timing. The class definition ends February 19, 2026, but IEEPA duties were collected through February 23, 2026. Duties paid in those last few days may not be covered by the definition as written.
The second is scope. The class is tied to the orders the Federal Circuit held unlawful. Commentators note this may leave out importers of goods subject to other IEEPA tariff orders (for example, orders on Brazil or India). Those importers may need individual cases to protect their claims.
If either gap could apply to your entries, that weighs toward looking at an individual case sooner rather than later.
What should Chinese importers of record and their brokers keep in mind?
Many of our readers are Chinese-owned U.S. companies, or Chinese sellers that shipped DDP and acted as importer of record. For background on how IEEPA tariff refunds apply to Chinese-origin goods, see what is refundable and what is not for importers of Chinese goods. A few practical points come up again and again for this group.
A company, whether a corporation, LLC, or other entity, can appear in the CIT only through an attorney authorized to practice before the court (USCIT Rule 75(b)(1)). A foreign seller that acted as importer of record can't bring its own case through an officer or employee.
CBP pays refunds only by ACH to the importer of record. Non-resident importers without a U.S. bank account can designate a U.S. notify party, such as their broker, on CBP Form 4811. Missing bank information is a real problem: as of September 11, 2026, CBP was holding 20,184 approved refunds worth about $1.3 billion for that reason.
Only the importer of record, or the licensed broker that filed the original entries, can file a CAPE declaration. If you've changed brokers since the entries were filed, check who's in a position to act on them.
Refund-ownership disputes are also starting to surface. At least one U.S. consumer-products company has disclosed putative consumer class actions over IEEPA refunds it received. DDP sellers and their U.S. buyers may face similar questions about who's entitled to the money, depending on the contract terms and how the duty was priced into the sale.
When should you talk to counsel?
If you have finally liquidated entries with IEEPA duties, the decision between an individual case and the class is time-sensitive in practical terms, even though the class itself doesn't require you to file anything. The same goes if your entries may fall outside the class definition, or if you're a non-resident importer that hasn't sorted out how a refund would be paid.
Jeff C. Chang is admitted to the U.S. Court of International Trade and has been in practice since 2006. Chang Law Group can assess your entries, where they fall under CAPE and the class definition, and whether filing makes sense for your situation.
Contact Chang Law Group
Phone: (617) 307-1238
Email: info@jchanglaw.com
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Sources and Legal Authority
U.S. Court of International Trade, slip opinion, Freestyle World, Inc. v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Court No. 26-01088 (Oct. 8, 2026) - https://www.cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/files/26-123.pdf
Declaration of Brandon Lord, CBP Executive Director of Trade Programs, filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade (Sept. 15, 2026)
USCIT Rule 75
This article is general information as of October 21, 2026. It isn't legal advice, and reading it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Eligibility, deadlines, and the right course of action depend on each importer's specific entries. Chang Law Group LLC is licensed to practice in Massachusetts; Jeff C. Chang is admitted to the U.S. Court of International Trade.
