The federal government's new online system for processing billions of dollars in tariff refunds hit trouble on its first day, with business owners reporting error messages, crashed pages, and hours-long hold times when they tried to file claims on Monday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries platform, known as CAPE, to begin returning money owed to American importers after the Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But for some of the tens of thousands of businesses waiting to reclaim their money, the portal didn't work.
The scale of what CBP must now process is staggering. The agency estimates that more than 330,000 importers paid roughly $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs across more than 53 million shipments, AP News reported. As of April 9, more than 56,000 importers had already registered to receive refunds. Up to 82 percent of IEEPA duty payments, amounting to about $127 billion, are eligible in CAPE's initial deployment phase.
That is a lot of money sitting in government coffers that belongs to American businesses. And on day one, the system built to return it couldn't handle the load.
Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Vernon Hills, Illinois-based educational toy maker Learning Resources, told CBS News that his company received an error message when it tried to file a claim through CAPE.
"The system seems to have gone blinky. It seems like the system is overwhelmed."
Woldenberg's company is no stranger to the tariff fight. Learning Resources filed the 2025 lawsuit that ultimately led to the Supreme Court striking down the Trump administration's emergency tariffs in February. That a company at the center of the legal battle couldn't even access the refund portal on launch day speaks to the gap between the court's order and the government's execution.
Beth Benike, co-founder of Minnesota-based baby product maker Busy Baby, described an even more frustrating experience. She said she spent more than four hours on hold with CBP over the weekend trying to resolve an account issue needed to file her claim. Benike is seeking a $50,000 refund, real money for a small manufacturer.
Benike told CBS News she hit a wall before the portal even opened to the public:
"I got an error message saying 'Duplicate tax ID,' which means my importer account is tied to someone else's. CBP gave me a ticket number, but there's been no response."
By Monday, things had gotten worse, not better. Benike said she couldn't even reach the point where an error message would appear because the portal itself was down.
The pattern here is familiar. Washington creates a problem, in this case, tariffs the Supreme Court ruled exceeded presidential authority, and then builds a fix that doesn't work for the people who need it most. The big importers with teams of customs brokers and trade lawyers will navigate CAPE eventually. The small-business owners who absorbed tariff costs out of their own margins are the ones left on hold.
Shawn Phetteplace, national campaigns director for Main Street Alliance, a network of small business owners, confirmed that some members experienced difficulty submitting claims or were unable to file at all on Monday. His frustration was pointed:
"We are deeply disappointed that the portal seems to be having major issues. Some people went out of business. Many of our members stopped hiring and growing and experienced real and severe consequences from the chaotic [tariffs]. We need those refunds to be processed as soon as humanly possible."
That urgency is justified. These aren't abstract policy debates. Small businesses made real decisions, laying off workers, shelving product lines, absorbing costs they couldn't pass along, based on tariffs that the nation's highest court ultimately declared unlawful. The economic pressure on consumers and businesses from tariff uncertainty has been well documented. Now the refund process meant to make them whole is stumbling out of the gate.
CBP told CBS News it is looking into reports of problems using the system. The agency has said it will issue refunds for valid claims within 60 to 90 days of approval, though it cautioned that claims with errors or inaccuracies could take longer. Initially, CAPE will accept requests for estimated tariffs and those finalized by CBP within the past 80 days.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in February that President Trump exceeded his authority by using the 1977 emergency powers law to impose nation-by-nation tariffs, finding that the power to tax imports belongs to Congress. The decision effectively wiped out a major portion of the administration's 2025 tariff program.
CBP described the CAPE system as designed "to efficiently process refunds, pursuant to court order, for importers and brokers who paid IEEPA duties," the Washington Times reported. The agency is deploying CAPE in phases, with phase one limited to certain unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation.
The system requires businesses to have an account with CBP's Automated Commercial Environment, the centralized platform used for processing imports and exports and collecting tariff revenue. That prerequisite created its own set of problems, as Benike's "duplicate tax ID" error illustrates. For businesses that don't regularly deal with customs paperwork, the technical requirements alone are a barrier.
Trade lawyer Meghann Supino of Ice Miller anticipated the trouble. She told AP News before the launch that some growing pains were inevitable: "Like any electronic online program that goes live with a lot of interest, I would expect that there might be some hiccups with the program on Monday."
Fair enough. But "hiccups" is a generous description when business owners can't access the system at all.
Even as the government works to return $166 billion in unlawful tariff collections, the broader trade policy picture hasn't changed. The administration moved quickly after the Supreme Court ruling to impose new tariffs under different legal authority, including a 10 percent global tariff under Section 122, as Fox News reported.
Trade lawyer Michael Lowell of Reed Smith put it plainly: "Tariffs are not going anywhere. That's clear. It's a central component of the administration's economic and trade policy." He added, "Tariffs are here to stay, at least for the balance of the Trump administration."
The administration has also expanded tariff policy into new sectors, including imposing tariffs of up to 100 percent on imported branded drugs while exempting companies that agree to pricing concessions. The legal tools may have shifted after the Supreme Court's ruling, but the policy direction has not.
That makes the refund portal's performance even more consequential. If the government can't efficiently return money it collected unlawfully, what confidence should businesses have in the broader tariff system's administration? The CAPE portal isn't just a technical project. It's a credibility test.
Al Fine, founder and CEO of Dame, a sexual health and wellness company, told CBS News she planned to submit her refund claim Monday. Her outlook captured the mix of hope and wariness many small importers feel:
"If this money comes in, it would be such a relief. I would definitely reinvest it in Dame and bring more products to market faster."
Rebecca Melsky, co-owner of Princess Awesome, was more guarded. She told the New York Post that her expectations were "pretty low about whether we were actually going to see any money back to us."
Whether consumers will see any benefit from the refunds remains an open question. Businesses absorbed the tariff costs in different ways, some raised prices, some cut margins, some stopped importing certain products entirely. There is no mechanism requiring importers to pass refund savings along to customers. The broader debate over tariffs as a revenue tool will continue regardless of how CAPE performs.
Breitbart reported that CBP is deploying the system in phases, with phase one expected to address the majority of anticipated claims. But "anticipated" and "actual" are two different things, as Monday's launch made clear.
Several key questions remain unanswered. What specific technical failure caused the portal problems? How many businesses were locked out on launch day? And can CBP realistically meet its own 60-to-90-day refund timeline when the front door to the system doesn't open?
When the government takes your money unlawfully, the least it can do is give it back without making you spend four hours on hold first.