U.S. CUSTOMS DUTIES

Bruzzo Dubucq assists French and European exporters entitled to a refund of customs duties unlawfully collected by U.S. authorities, declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on February 20, 2026. We handle the entire administrative refund process and, where necessary, litigation before the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Over 330,000 importers and 53 million customs entries may be eligible for a refund.

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THE LEGAL BASIS FOR OUR ACTION

Since April 2, 2025, the U.S. administration has imposed customs duties on virtually all imports by invoking a 1977 economic emergency law: the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). These duties frequently reached 10 to 20% of the value of imported goods.

On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that these duties had been imposed without a valid legal basis. They must be refunded, including interest, to those who paid them. Subsequent decisions of the U.S. Court of International Trade have required U.S. Customs and Border Protection to liquidate (or reliquidate) entries on which IEEPA duties were collected.

$166 billion in duties were collected between February 2025 and February 2026. French companies that exported to the United States during this period may be eligible for a refund of any unlawful duties they paid. The official refund portal (“CAPE”) opened on April 20, 2026, to provide a simplified process for reimbursement. Normally the importer of record must file an administrative protest before the CBP in order to challenge a liquidated entry: the CAPE system bypasses the protest procedure. Strict deadlines apply: the streamlined CAPE process must be initiated within 80 days after liquidation, and claims that miss that deadline must file a protest before the CPB no later than 180 days after their customs liquidation (or reliquidation).

We assist you in asserting your rights and recovering these unlawfully collected amounts.

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ARE YOU ELIGIBLE ?

You distribute your products through a U.S. subsidiary

If your U.S. subsidiary was importing your products, it is the Importer of Record. It paid the IEEPA duties and has a direct right to a refund through the CAPE portal. The group may recover these amounts through its U.S. entity, with the French-American tax implications this entails.

You exported under DDP Incoterm

The Incoterms are standardized international trade terms with customs implications that determine the mutual obligations of the seller and the buyer, the allocation of transportation costs, and the place of delivery representing the point of risk transfer from seller to buyer.

The DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) Incoterm has a direct consequence under U.S. customs law: by contractually assuming destination clearance and payment of all import duties, the French exporter may be treated as the Importer of Record (IOR) by U.S. customs authorities. You have a direct right to file a claim and receive the refund into your bank account, without requiring the cooperation of your U.S. buyer.

You exported under a different Incoterm ? Your U.S. buyer was the Importer of Record and holds the sole direct right to a refund.

This does not mean you are without recourse. We analyze your sales contracts to identify clauses enabling you to obtain a transfer of the refund, and, in the event of refusal, we assess the legal remedies available to you.

WHAT WE DO

We operate across two complementary tracks, designed to cover the full range of situations encountered by European exporters.

Track 1 — Administrative Refund Procedure

Eligibility audit and verification of Importer of Record status in the ACE portal
Entry-by-entry estimation of the refundable amount, by cross-referencing ACE data, customs broker records, and the ERP
Estimation of accrued interest to be refunded
Configuration of the account to receive the customs duty refund
Preparation of the claim, compilation of the CSV file in the format required by the administration, and submission of the claim
Monitoring of CBP validations, analysis of rejections, and resubmission of corrected entries where applicable
Filing of protective protests for liquidated entries excluded from Phase 1, within the 180-day deadline.

Track 2 — Litigation

The firm works with Eric Lindquist, Partner at the New York international law firm Fox Horani Camerini LLP, as our preferred correspondent for representing our clients before the Court of International Trade (CIT).

Eric is an international commercial lawyer, fluent in English, French, and Spanish, with more than 30 years’ experience serving clients in all aspects of their cross-border trade, including advising them on U.S. tariffs and representing them in related litigation.

For entries definitively liquidated and excluded from CAPE Phase 1, this collaboration enables us to cover the full litigation track: protests before U.S. customs authorities, actions before the Court of International Trade, and, where applicable, contractual disputes with your U.S. clients or partners in the event they refuse to transfer the refund.

Each matter is handled with rigorous structure: preliminary audit, comprehensive mapping of eligible entries, submission strategy tailored to import volume, individualized monitoring of CBP validations, management of rejections, and French-American tax coordination where the refund flows through a subsidiary.

KEY DEADLINES

The CAPE system is available to demand either liquidation of entries on which IEEPA duties were collected but not yet liquidated, or reliquidation of liquidated entries that included such duties. The general rule is that any appeal of a CBP liquidation determination is waived unless the importer files a protest before the CBP within 180 days after liquidation. The CAPE procedure provides an exception, but only if a CAPE submission is made within 80 days after liquidation. For reliquidation claims, the CAPE system is only available for the first 80 days after the original liquidation . If that deadline is missed, the usual 180-day limitation period applies. Liquidation or reliquidation decisions issued through CAPE itself are themselves subject to the 180-day protest deadline.

These deadlines run continuously from the date of each individual liquidation or reliquidation. A preliminary audit allows for precise mapping of your portfolio’s exposure and the establishment of a prioritized processing strategy based on each entry’s status.

Companies wishing to secure their refund rights, including for entries covered by subsequent CAPE phases whose timeline has not yet been set, may file protective protests before the 180-day deadline expires. We will assist you.

OUR APPROACH

Bruzzo Dubucq commands expertise across customs law, its interface with French tax regimes, and the transfer pricing issues specific to integrated groups in a context of economic warfare. We have assembled a multidisciplinary team: customs law attorneys, tax specialists, compliance and economic warfare experts, and litigators, dedicated to handling IEEPA matters.

Our work is fully documented and coordinated with our clients’ internal teams: finance, legal, and customs broker, to ensure a comprehensive and compliant submission, leaving no eligible entry outside the scope due to procedural error or an expired deadline.

We act exclusively on behalf of French and European exporters and importers. Our positioning is consistent and free from conflicts of interest.

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