Tariff Refunds Ordered. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Originally published March 6, 2026. This version was rebuilt from primary sources for the FIN archive, and the facts are as of that date unless an update line says otherwise.

Two weeks after the Supreme Court threw out the emergency tariffs, a trade court judge told Customs to start giving the money back. Getting the order was the easy part. Getting paid was going to take a lot longer.

The short version

• A Court of International Trade judge ordered Customs to finalize import entries without the struck-down IEEPA duties.
• Target laid out a big new spending plan for its stores, and furniture showrooms can borrow the idea at their own scale.
• American Home Furniture & Mattress filed for Chapter 11 in New Mexico.
• Outdoor furniture maker ScanCom International said it was shutting down.
• Consumer confidence ticked up in February but stayed well off its highs.

The refund order

The Supreme Court ruled on February 20 that IEEPA doesn't authorize tariffs. On March 4, Judge Richard Eaton of the Court of International Trade ordered Customs, in a case brought by Atmus Filtration, to liquidate open entries without the IEEPA duties and to reliquidate entries whose liquidation wasn't yet final. In plain terms, that means refunds with interest, run through the normal customs process rather than a special program.

The government had argued that doing this at scale would be a huge manual job. Importers expected appeals and delays. For a furniture importer, the practical move was to get entry records in order with the customs broker so nothing would slow a claim once the system was ready.

A store lesson from Target

Target said it would invest an extra $2 billion in 2026, split between store remodels and capital projects on one side and payroll, training and the in-store experience on the other.

A furniture store doesn't need that budget to use the idea. Better lighting, fewer and stronger vignettes, and a floor edited down to collections that say something about the store all cost far less than a remodel. So does training salespeople to give real styling help. Technology can stay simple, like a room planner or a good follow-up email, as long as it helps the customer decide.

A New Mexico retailer files Chapter 11

AFC Acquisition Corp., which operates American Home Furniture & Mattress, filed for Chapter 11 on March 4 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico. It filed under Chapter 11, the reorganization chapter, rather than Chapter 7 liquidation.

Update, October 2026. The bankruptcy court docket shows the case was dismissed on October 14, 2026, and the company's website now advertises a going-out-of-business sale.

ScanCom shuts down

ScanCom International, a Danish-owned maker of outdoor furniture for other brands with its main production in Vietnam, said it would cease operations after several hard years following COVID. The company said it would run a controlled shutdown and try to protect customers with orders already placed. Anyone carrying ScanCom-made outdoor programs needed to confirm what would ship and line up a backup source before the spring selling season.

Consumers felt a little better

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 91.2 in February, a small gain from January. It was still a cautious reading, with prices and costs high on people's minds.

Where this left the industry in early March

The refund fight had moved from whether to how and when. Store chains with deep pockets were spending to make shopping feel better, and smaller operators were feeling the squeeze from costs, traffic and tariffs at the same time.

Related on FIN

• Follow the Tariff Dollars
• Refund Checks Are Moving. So Is Store Traffic, in the Wrong Direction.

Sources

• Supreme Court of the United States, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287, opinion of Feb. 20, 2026
• U.S. Court of International Trade, Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States, No. 26-01259, order of March 4, 2026
• Target Corporation, Strategic plan release, March 3, 2026
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Mexico, AFC Acquisition Corporation, case 1:26-bk-10283, docket
• American Home Furniture & Mattress, customer update page
• Lars Larsen Group, ScanCom International to cease operations
• The Conference Board, February 2026 Consumer Confidence release