Nintendo has asked a US federal court to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to force it to pass on to customers any tariff refunds it receives from the government. The company argues that buyers of its consoles and accessories have no legal claim to such refunds, since they voluntarily paid the advertised price and received the product they paid for in return. The case is one of several test cases likely to shape whether ordinary consumers can recoup costs from tariffs that US courts have since ruled were unlawfully imposed.

The class action, filed in April in the Western District of Washington by Gregory Hoffert and Prashant Sharan, alleges unjust enrichment and unfair conduct under Washington's Consumer Protection Act, pointing to price rises of $30-$50 on the original Switch and $5-$10 on Switch 2 accessories. Nintendo's motion to dismiss, filed this week, says there is nothing "unjust" about it keeping any refunds, as customers have no entitlement to money the company may later recover. Similar suits have been filed against Sony over PlayStation pricing and, on 17 July, against Microsoft over Xbox pricing, part of a wider wave of tariff-related litigation following a February Supreme Court ruling that Trump's IEEPA tariffs were illegal; the government's refund process, however, is only open to importers and customs brokers, not consumers.