Faced with global supply chain challenges and inflationary pressures, game companies have decided to fight back against unreasonable trade policies. According to foreign media reports, Nintendo of America has officially filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade, accusing government agencies including the U.S. Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Nintendo is citing the U.S. Supreme Court's latest ruling in February of this year as its legal basis, arguing that the Trump administration's previous global tariff policies were "illegal" and demanding that the U.S. government fully refund the tariffs already paid and the resulting interest.
Based on the Supreme Court ruling: Criticizing "unauthorized executive orders"
The core of this lawsuit is the global tariff policies implemented by US President Trump during his term.
Abuse of the IEEPA Act: Under the U.S. Constitution, tax and trade policies should be formulated by Congress. However, the Trump administration invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)—a law that grants the president expanded trade control during a national emergency—to impose global tariffs through executive orders as leverage to sanction hostile nations and coerce trading partners into negotiations.
The Supreme Court ruled it illegal: In February of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court formally upheld the lower court's opinion, ruling that the Trump administration's use of IEEPA to collect tariffs was illegal, directly stripping the government of its power to impose tariffs through the act.
Nintendo's legal action: Nintendo's legal team, responsible for handling import business, stated in its lawsuit that the company suffered "material damages" due to the U.S. government's "illegal enforcement and mandatory implementation of an unauthorized executive order." Therefore, Nintendo is demanding that the government provide a "prompt refund, including interest."
In response to the lawsuit, Nintendo of America issued only a brief statement indicating that a request had indeed been submitted, but that no further information could be shared at this time.
Tariffs and component shortages: The dilemma of Nintendo Switch pricing
In fact, due to the enormous import costs and changes in "market conditions," Nintendo had already reluctantly raised the price of the original Nintendo Switch back in August 2025. However, to date, Nintendo has not made a similar price increase for its next-generation console, the Nintendo Switch 2.
Besides tariffs, Nintendo currently faces another serious challenge: a global memory shortage. As Valve pointed out earlier...Facing hardware production difficultiesThe massive demand for memory from the AI industry is severely squeezing the supply chain of consumer electronics. If component costs continue to soar while the tariff refund mechanism remains unclear, it remains uncertain whether Nintendo will be forced to raise the price of the Nintendo Switch 2.
A refund mechanism has not yet been established, and a new wave of tariffs is still brewing.
Although the Supreme Court ruled that the previous tariffs were illegal, it did not specify how the government should return these "illegal gains" to the affected companies. This is why many companies, such as Nintendo, believe that "filing a lawsuit directly" is the best way to ensure they get a refund.
According to The Guardian, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun preparing a system to process refunds for affected businesses. However, this does not signify the end of the trade war. At a press conference following the Supreme Court's ruling, Trump publicly announced plans to "reintroduce tariffs" using other, more legally binding methods.
