Lululemon Athletica and Fabletics are facing reported class-action lawsuits from consumers demanding refunds for tariff costs they say the companies passed on. The activewear retailers join FedEx, Costco and several others as targets of proposed class actions seeking tariff refunds for consumers. See additional SGB Executive coverage at bottom.
The lawsuits follow the Supreme Court’s February 20 ruling that President Trump did not have the authority to impose tariffs under the emergency powers law he relied on for many of the tariffs he imposed.
As in other suits, the plaintiffs who sued Lululemon on March 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan are claiming unjust enrichment, that the company unfairly received a benefit at consumers’ expense.
“Lululemon should not be permitted to retain the funds consumers paid above and beyond what they would have absent the IEEPA tariffs,” the plaintiffs wrote. “The money belongs to Plaintiffs and the Class, and Lululemon is obligated to return it.”
The suit points to past statements from company officials who said Lululemon would increase prices due to the tariffs.
Court documents state Lululemon could be entitled to roughly $240 million in refunds from the federal government. No reimbursement process has been established.
“This presents an obvious problem,” the complaint states.
“Although Lululemon will recover tariff refunds on the tariffed goods it sold, its customers bore the economic brunt of these tariffs by paying higher prices Lululemon admittedly set because of the IEEPA tariffs,” the plaintiffs wrote. “The risk of Lululemon obtaining double recovery is therefore imminent.”
The plaintiffs include Joshua Neuman, Bobby Kelley, Jessica Kelley, and Ronald Kenneth Buckman, III.
Fabletics is facing a class action lawsuit filed in an Illinois state court. In that lawsuit, Chicago resident Norah Flaherty similarly alleges that Fabletics’ customers have been injured by the unlawful tariffs and that the apparel company passed those costs along to them.
As companies rush to seek full refunds of the trade duties they paid, Fabletics “will have been provided a windfall as a result of having charged consumers for the collection of unlawful IEEPA tariffs,” while customers will not receive any benefit, the complaint alleges.
“Defendant’s retention of money obtained from charging consumers for IEEPA tariffs offends public policy, is oppressive and causes substantial injury to consumers by depriving those consumers … of the cost of the unlawful IEEPA tariffs,” Flaherty claims.
The lawsuit is seeking a refund for all the customers who covered the bill in their purchase prices.
Image courtesy Lululemon
See below for additional SGB Executive coverage of tariffs and consumer lawsuits:
EXEC: The Trump Tariff Refund Process Just Got a Lot More Complex
Report: U.S. Companies Increasingly Passing Tariff Costs on to Consumers
