US tariffs: how Trump’s tax is hitting Big Tech and beyond

The US Customs and Border Protection says it currently can’t comply with an order to process billions of dollars in refunds stemming from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. In a filing on Friday, CBP executive director Brandon Lord says the agency’s digital import processing system is “not well suited to a task of this scale,” as reported earlier by CNBC.

The CBP’s admission comes after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last month. This week, the International Trade Court ruled that importers impacted by the tariffs are entitled to refunds with interest. The CBP estimates that it collected around $166 billion in IEEPA duties as of March 4th, 2026.

Nintendo of America is suing the US government over President Trump’s tariffs and is demanding a “prompt refund, with interest” of any duties that it has paid, according to a complaint filed in the US Court of International Trade, as reported previously by Aftermath.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy “reciprocal” tariffs was illegal, without specifying how any refunds might work.

Analogue announced a restock for its Pocket handheld, but for the second time since late 2021, it’s getting a price bump, this time to $239.99. The Pocket will once again be available for preorder through Analogue’s website in black or white (the brightly colored versions are always limited editions that sell out fast) starting on March 4th at 8AM PT/11AM ET with shipping expected to start in June 2026.

After several delays, the Analogue Pocket eventually shipped in December 2021 for those who’d preordered the console for $199.99. The company opened preorders once again in December 2021, but with a price bump to $219.99 due to “industry-wide component price increases.” Those who preorder a Pocket this week will now have to pay $239.99, which the company blames on “recent tariff announcements” in a post on X.

FedEx plans to pass along any refunds resulting from the Supreme Court’s ruling that some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are “illegal.” In a statement on its website, FedEx notes that while “no refund process has been established by the courts,” the company will reimburse shippers and consumers impacted by tariffs if it gets its money back.

The delivery giant issued the statement after filing a lawsuit in the US Court of International Trade, asking the Trump administration for a “full refund” of tariff payments. Though FedEx covers the cost of duties and tariffs on a customer’s behalf when packages arrive in the US, it bills customers for the fees later on.

The US Supreme Court struck down some of Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports, which have become a hallmark of the chaos of the second Trump administration.

The court’s ruling deals specifically with duties levied using a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), something no other president has done — the 1977 law was initially created to limit presidential ability to declare a national emergency only to times when the threat came from outside the US. The legality of using the IEEPA to tariff imports has been in question since the taxes were announced last year; the IEEPA was used to try to justify steep tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, as well as so-called “reciprocal” tariffs applied to goods coming into the US from just about every other country on Earth. The IEEPA was also invoked to end the de minimis exemption, which allowed for packages under a certain value to enter the US duty-free.

In 2023, DJI created a massive hit with the Osmo Pocket 3, a tiny steadicam with a far bigger one-inch-type sensor that dramatically improved the quality of video you could get with so tiny a gadget. Today, the company may be doing the same with its most popular portable line of drones — and with better battery life than ever.

The DJI Mini 5 Pro is the company’s first compact drone with a 50-megapixel one-inch-type sensor, up from 1/1.3-inch in the Mini 4 Pro. At 15.19 x 11.11mm, it offers more than twice the sensor area, which could mean capturing more light; DJI claims 14 stops of dynamic range.

As President Donald Trump’s August 29th deadline for new tariffs rolled around, the first thing that I thought of was 2026 planners. In July, Trump signed an executive order essentially killing a little-known but highly consequential trade rule, which meant that purchases coming from abroad — like $100 in planners and accessories — could enter the US duty-free. My preferred planner, the Hobonichi Techo, is printed and shipped from Japan. With the de minimis exemption removed, my tax bill could be between $15 and $100 — or more, depending on how the increased costs are factored. Was I willing to risk paying as much in fees, duties, and shipping as my items cost, essentially doubling the cost?

For months, Americans — and businesses abroad — have lived in something resembling a hostage situation. Trump’s tariffs have boomeranged back many times over; terms are negotiated, canceled, and reinstated more times than anyone can count. Shoppers stock up on what they predict will go up in price. US consumers are already absorbing the costs of Trump’s trade policies, even if they don’t immediately notice it. But the end of the de minimis exemption that we all benefited from will hit people like a ton of bricks. A new era of US consumerism is upon us, and it’s starting to get ugly.

Sony is raising the price of all PlayStation 5 models by $50 in the US. In a blog post announcing the change, Sony cited the “challenging economic environment,” which includes the tariffs President Trump has placed on imported products.

The changes will go into effect on Thursday, and the new prices are as follows:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a new wave of tariffs are taking effect today.

Announced on July 31st, the latest set of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on foreign imports — possibly illegally — will set a floor of 15 percent for around 40 countries with a trade deficit with the US. There’s an even higher rate for another couple dozen countries, as CNN has reported. This raises the floor for many countries from the universal tariff rate of 10 percent that Trump previously levied, though some goods, like smartphones, are carved out of higher rates. Tariff escalation seems far from over, with Trump threatening on Wednesday to impose a 100 percent tariff on semiconductors — unless companies build manufacturing plants in the US.

Tom Conrad took over as CEO of Sonos in January as it continues to recover from last year’s disastrous mobile app update, and now the company has issued its first quarterly earnings report after he dropped the interim tag from his title. Beyond the numbers, with $344.8 million in revenue and a net loss of $3.4 million, Conrad acknowledged the impact that President Trump’s tariffs will have on its business, saying that “it has become clear that we’ll need to raise prices on certain products later this year,” as reported earlier by Bloomberg.

Conrad didn’t go into detail on the price changes and said that Sonos is working with its partners to share the extra costs, as nearly all of its products for the US are made in Vietnam and Malaysia, which are both facing higher tariff rates soon.

In the very first week of his presidency, Donald Trump vowed to force silicon manufacturing back to the United States by making processors more expensive, a threat he’s repeated since. Is he finally going through with that plan? Trump just announced he’s putting an enormous 100 percent tariff on chips and semiconductors — unless your company kisses the ring like Apple CEO Tim Cook just did, perhaps.

In the same live news conference where Apple announced a new $100 billion US manufacturing plan and presented Trump with a 24-karat gold and glass statue, the president explained that Apple had now done enough to escape his upcoming import taxes on chips: