Dame battles customs refund backlog

Dame Products refunded customers who paid its Trump tariff surcharge, and cofounder Alexandra Fine said the company is still trying to get its own money back from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (businessinsider.com) Fine told Business Insider that Dame added the surcharge in 2025 after tariffs raised the cost of importing products from China, where the sexual wellness brand manufactures goods. (businessinsider.com) (cbsnews.com) She told Modern Retail that Dame sold roughly 2,000 surcharge line items and planned to return about $10,000 to customers automatically within 15 business days. (modernretail.co) Fine said Dame has paid about $100,000 in tariff bills to Customs, far more than it recouped through the surcharge. (modernretail.co) The refund fight follows a Supreme Court ruling in February that struck down many tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, sending importers to Customs to recover duties already paid. (businessinsider.com) (cnbc.com) U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it is building refund processing inside its Automated Commercial Environment and opened the IEEPA duty refund process in April. (cbp.gov) (usatoday.com) Retail Dive reported the system was set to go live at 8 a.m. EDT on April 20 to begin electronic returns for an estimated $127 billion in tariffs. (retaildive.com) Business Insider reported earlier this month that more than 26,000 businesses had registered for the refund system and that Customs was racing to pay back an estimated $166 billion. (businessinsider.com) For Dame, the dispute is now less about whether customers were repaid than how long a small importer has to wait while Customs works through the backlog. (businessinsider.com)