Amazon wins fur tariff appeal: marketplace liability ruling

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed a whistleblower False Claims Act lawsuit alleging Amazon helped foreign fur manufacturers evade US tariffs and inspection fees on products sold through its marketplace. The court found no proof that Amazon knew or deliberately ignored the alleged scheme.

No. It means that under the False Claims Act, this particular whistleblower failed to plausibly allege Amazon's knowledge of the underlying tariff fraud. Liability still attaches to the importer of record and the seller, and parallel enforcement under different statutes or jurisdictions can still reach the marketplace.

The operational read is that customs duty, declared value and inspection-fee exposure sit with the 3P seller and its overseas supplier, not with Amazon. Sellers should re-confirm Importer of Record clauses in supplier contracts, audit declared values against commercial invoices, and push landed cost into per-SKU P&L so tariff changes show up in margin reporting.

Treat customs compliance as part of onboarding. Document IOR assignment, HTS code validation and supplier export records for every brand you operate or acquire. Across multi-brand portfolios, slice margin by supplier and country of origin to identify the most tariff-exposed lanes.

It joins the SCOTUS IEEPA tariff case, CBP's seller refund portal and Amazon's own IEEPA refund lawsuit. Together these rulings are redrawing the line between marketplace, seller of record and importer responsibility for US duty and inspection fees.