this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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Two gamers have filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo, alleging that the company will be unjustly enriching itself with any refund it secures from the U.S. government over widespread tariffs last year that, among other things, hiked the prices of Nintendo hardware and accessories.

“Unless restrained by this Court, Nintendo stands to recover the same tariff payments twice—once from consumers through higher prices and again from the federal government through tariff refunds, including interest paid by the government on those funds,” the suit states.

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[–] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 58 points 4 days ago (2 children)

We won't see a cent of the money stolen from us by Donald Trump and his gang of pedophiles.

My company lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in tarrifs. We passed those on to the customer since we couldn't take a 50% hike on costs.

We have no way to refund money we don't have.

[–] agingelderly@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (3 children)

How did your company lose hundreds of thousands if they passed them onto the customer? If you made the customer pay, your company has the money and can pass on the money you get from the government to your consumers

[–] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (3 children)

We've sold maybe a 10th of what we sold pre-tariffs. W have probably lost closer to million in sales due to the tariffs. Customer's aren't buying parts for preventative maintenance, they only purchase when it's an emergency and they are losing tens of thousands of dollars an hour in production. US manufacturing is in trouble.

[–] agingelderly@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

So the years you have good sales did you ever pass the extra earnings on to the customer?

Edit: ****crickets ****

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[–] benjirenji@slrpnk.net 25 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You don't sell the same amount of product when you have to increase the price. You may need to shrink your business to not get the remaining margin getting eaten up by operational costs.

[–] LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Oh yeah, our sales have tanked this year due to the tarrifs. Customers keep asking us to find ways to avoid tariffs, but the parts are MADE IN GERMANY

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[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Honestly, everyone needs to just cut the loss and move on. At least on the monetary front. Trump should see repercussions for enacting an illegal tax.

[–] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Like getting Al Capone on tax evasion, I'll take it.

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[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 266 points 5 days ago (30 children)

What is the logic behind giving a company money for the tariffs? The costs were invariably passed to the consumer, so how does paying the company make any sense?

[–] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 238 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The logic was “these companies ate the cost” and when confronted with the fact that prices went up and the costs had been passed on to consumers, the clarification they provided was “nuh uh”.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 49 points 5 days ago (1 children)

and when confronted with the fact that prices went up and the costs had been passed on to consumers, the clarification they provided was “nuh uh”.

the argument is, when a price goes up, there will be fewer sales and therefore less revenue/profit

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 54 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Which makes me want to say things that would get me banned for multiple reasons.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 94 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

This is America. You’re not a person unless you’re a corporation.

[–] SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Is it expensive to file corporate taxes in the US? It really sounds like if everyone represented themselves as a corporation they would have more rights.

[–] forty2@lemmy.world 35 points 5 days ago (4 children)

If you're looking for a new rabbit hole to explore...theres an entire crowd of people who firmly believe that the government creates a corporate version of you when you're born, and that your name in CAPS on the birth certificate is evidence of this.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There's also endless content of them confidently presenting these arguments to judges when they've broken laws and being immediately shut down by said judges.

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[–] suicidaleggroll@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It didn't take long to go from "corporations are people" to "the only people that matter are corporations"

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[–] velma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 39 points 5 days ago

The companies are the ones who paid the tariffs directly and then passed the cost onto their customers.

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago (7 children)

The companies paid the tarrif, they get the refund.

The fact that tariffs allowed some companies to demand more money, is related but not causal, some companies will have had to eat shit because the market wouldn't bare the increase.

I'd love for the lawsuit to succeed and it set the precedent that when governments issue refunds they can force companies to pass it on to the customer, but I think it's unlikely.

It's also complicated by the way pricing works.

If the tarrif is for $15 but the uncertainty allowed a company to increase prices by $20, how much should the customer be refunded?

And what if the tarrif was $15 but the market only allowed a $10 increase and the company ate shit on the other $5?

Now what if none of these numbers are set in stone and all of the numbers are guesswork? Should the government audit all companies that changed their prices?

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[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 134 points 5 days ago (9 children)

Nintendo: you know what? Fuck you. Our prices just went up for you. Games are $120 now. Fuck you, you'll still buy our pokemon slop we spent 0 effort making. Mario? Yep, $120, but now when he jumps he says "fucka youuuu!" You'll still buy it, because Mario.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 13 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I've been ootl on Pokemon since y/x, and even was barely paying attention before someone else bought it for me. But the shit I saw when sword shield(? First switch title) was wild. They really were just phoning it in, and people still bought everything else they dropped! The only reason I got a switch was for prime 4, and likely won't be getting a switch 2. Sucks watching my nostalgia be abused in real time.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 24 points 5 days ago (3 children)

You can still enjoy the games you are nostalgic for with emulators.

[–] Cherry@piefed.social 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I love how nintendo are switching our youths back towards old school tactics. Emulators and piracy are having their renaissance.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 9 points 3 days ago

So remind me how much the Switch 2 retailed for while the tariffs were in place and how much it retails for now?

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 53 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Like everything else Trump does this too was a grift by him to funnel money to the rich. He should be a part of this law suit.

[–] 7101334@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (9 children)

He's criminally protected from any official acts while in office, remember?

(A Supreme Court decision made during Biden's term, it should be noted - he was also criminally protected from any consequences of his official acts as president, and they specifically gave the example of a president using Seal Team Six to assassinate their political rivals. Biden didn't even try using that power against Trump in any way. Assassination was probably off the table lmao but he could've done extrajudicial surveillance or such. He didn't, because they're all owned by the same oligarchs and Zionazis.)

And a civil lawsuit would be paid by... the taxpayers.

You don't get to win when the other side makes the rules. You have to stop playing the game, or get as close as you can.

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[–] IzzyScissor@lemmy.world 69 points 5 days ago (13 children)

Friendly reminder that the Boston Tea Party was about tariffs. We know what works.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Heh. Yeah right. They passed that tariff cost on to you but no way will they pass the refund on.

[–] PM_ME_YOUR_BOOBIES@lemmy.world 30 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Hence the reason of the the lawsuit

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[–] MithranArkanere@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago (3 children)

We should do a blanket class action lawsuit against all corporations throughout history, demanding all the wages they owe, refunds for the prices they gouged, and the artificially created inflation.

Or they could settle by paying for worldwide universal healthcare and UBI.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Fuck settling. Every time we’ve settled with the capitalists they just claw everything back 10 years later. We need to permanently make them extinct.

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[–] architect@thelemmy.club 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nah. Seize the means, comrade.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago

Let’s see more of this.

[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I wonder why they chose Nintendo. To base this class action off of. They could have chosen any company to go after, like Walmart or Apple.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 17 points 4 days ago

Because Nintendo have been litigious cunts the past few years and it's poetic justice?

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Because Walmart doesn't sue their customers for buying and improving upon their products.

Nintendo bites the hand that feeds. Treats their biggest fans like piles of subhuman garbage. Short of Nestlé, very few companies deserve a taste of their own medicine more than Nintendo. Fuck them.

Edit: And they've been this way for as along as I can remember. Back in the early 90s, Nintendo tried to sue to stop Game Genie from becoming a thing. Sega, on the other hand, made it an officially licensed product! Nintendo has never had any chill. I wish they were the ones that lost the console war instead of Sega. They don't deserve to be as popular and beloved as they are.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Customers should get the refunds as this is business already transacted. Nintendo should get a "loss of potential sales" award due to it being priced out for many consumers, due to the tariffs. How that number would be determined is best left to people smarter than me.

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[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Its even messier. Nintendo is a customer of the companies that produce the discrete parts, and paid tarriffs on them. Then they sell to a retailed at wholesale who sells to the consumer. The retailer may or may not also have paid a tarrif on the finished product. So what waa the final retail proce composed of? How much of it was Nintendo's? How much of it was.... Say.... Walmart? Who is on the hook for it for the consumer?

What a fucking mess.

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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 24 points 5 days ago

And the players should win this case. It’s pretty obviously true that Nintendo would be recovering tariff money twice.

[–] BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

I think it's presumptuous to assume that the increase in prices that just happened to be identical to the tarrifs had anything to do with the tarrifs.

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