Robert Triggs / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Nintendo has basically told its customers that it won’t give them a cut of its tariff refunds.
  • The company hiked prices in August last year due to increased tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
  • Gamers filed a lawsuit claiming that Nintendo should give them a share of its tariff refunds since they bought its products at hiked prices.

If the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariff scheme wasn’t bad enough for US consumers, Nintendo is about to make it even worse. The Switch 2 maker has basically told its customers it doesn’t owe them any refunds for the extra money they had to pay due to increased tariffs.

In its response to a class action lawsuit filed by customers (via Gizmodo), Nintendo said that its customers “received exactly what they bargained and paid for” when they purchased Nintendo products at hiked prices. The company further added:

Plaintiffs are not entitled to a rebate simply because of intervening legal developments related to tariffs.

Back in August last year, Nintendo hiked prices for the original Nintendo Switch family of products in the US due to increased tariffs courtesy of the Trump administration. This included the Switch console, the Switch Lite, and even accessories like the Joy-Con controllers.

However, in February this year, a Supreme Court ruling opened the door for Nintendo to file a lawsuit against the US government and ask for a refund on the extra costs of shipping its gaming consoles and accessories to the US.

Naturally, gamers who purchased Nintendo’s products at inflated prices want a cut of those refunds and filed a lawsuit to that end. In its response to the lawsuit, the company also stated that the plaintiffs were now asking the court to “invent a new legal duty” and retroactively change the prices of already sold products based on the new legal landscape. It further added that “that is not how commercial transactions work,” while asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

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