Trump has since proposed a 15% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and more than two dozen states filed suit over that measure as of March 6. Nintendo's complaint covers the IEEPA duties specifically, meaning the company's exposure to future tariffs on its production in Vietnam and China remains an open question, with Nintendo itself having warned last year that Switch 2 pricing "may be subject to change" depending on market conditions.
Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.\u00a0 Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-18/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
Notton Here's how I expect this to go: 1. Nintendo USA Sues 2. a US government psycho will threaten to ban and register nintendo as a supply chain risk 3. nintendo USA withdraws lawsuit 4. nintendo USA gets forcefully sold off to some US billionaire anyways Reply
Zaranthos Nintendo USA sues the US government that's trying to protect the US market where Nintendo itself garners over a third of its revenue. Almost every other country in the world imposes some type of duty, tariff, or VAT on goods and services. Prior to 2025 the US had some of the lowest tariffs and trade barriers in the world but paid some of the highest (often 2-3x) in the world with almost no countries having actual "free trade". Many other countries also imposed trade barriers to block US products entirely from their markets. These are just facts. Now the lawyers will collect a lot of this money (lol). Reply
Phaaze88 THIS is the kind of money corpos should be threatened with, not the slap on the wrist, calculated risk, learned nothing, millions. Reply
PCWarrior Wait—200 billion? The article must have meant 200 million, not billion. Setting that aside, I can understand why Nintendo might pursue damages for the delayed launch and the reduced competitiveness caused by the price increase. But how exactly can they demand the return of the collected duties? If they raised prices to offset the tariff costs then those costs were passed on to consumers. And MSRP is almost always listed before taxes or duties anyway, just like VAT in Europe or sales tax in the US. So I don't think that Nintendo absorbed any meaningful portion of the tariff burden. If anyone is entitled to a refund, it would be the customers who actually paid those inflated prices, not Nintendo. Unless Nintendo plans to take the refunded duties and then reimburse consumers (which seems extremely unlikely), their claim doesn’t hold much water. Reply
thestryker PCWarrior said: Wait—200 billion? The headline is flat out wrong, but the article states it correctly. The 200 billion is roughly the total amount of tariffs collected in entirety. PCWarrior said: But how exactly can they demand the return of the collected duties? Nintendo paid them, and they were ruled to have been illegal. PCWarrior said: So I don't think that Nintendo absorbed any meaningful portion of the tariff burden. Unfortunately this doesn't matter at all because they're still the ones who paid them. That's how tariffs work which is why anyone who understood this pointed out they're effectively a universal tax on buyers. Sure company costs go up, but they're going to largely pass that onto consumers. However the companies are still the ones who paid them so if they're ruled to be illegal, which they were, the companies are the ones who are going to be demanding refunds. Reply
Syntaximus Look at that, a Nintendo lawsuit I can actually get on board with. Reply
Grand_Pumba They shouldn’t get a dime since they jacked up their price due to the tariffs anyway. Unless they want to refund the customers the cost they passed on. Sony and Nintendo better wise up they are not the only companies capable of putting out systems and games. Reply
lacerna Syntaximus said: Look at that, a Nintendo lawsuit I can actually get on board with. So you like that they'll essentially get paid twice? The tariffs were imposed, so Nintendo charged customers extra. Now that the Supreme Court says that Trump can't do what other Presidents have done — simply because he did it on a massive scale — Nintendo wants to sue for the refund, too. If they win, they need a massive class action suit against them. I say the opposite. A different commenter mentioned, though likely with disdain, that Nintendo could wind up facing a ban, due to being a security risk. I hope it happens. Nintendo has destroyed every last bit of its goodwill, and is only suing because they hope to get free money. They had to have broken a collusion law, or maybe an antitrust law, somehow. My hope is that they're uncovered. Just like Microsoft, I've gone from being a devoted fan to being a disgruntled ex-customer, all by their own actions, and I know I'm not alone. Reply
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/nintendo/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/nintendo/nintendo-sues-u-s-government-over-tariffs#main
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