On March 4, 2026, the Court of International Trade issued an order in Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States directing Customs and Border Protection to process entries subject to IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) duties without regard to those duties. At the time, we wrote that the order was a meaningful win but not a refund check, that it had real gaps the government was likely to exploit, and that importers who assumed the order alone would deliver their money back could end up at the back of a very long line, or out of line entirely. We advised filing an individual case at the Court of International Trade rather than counting on someone else's lawsuit.
Atmus itself is no longer the case carrying that litigation forward. It was voluntarily dismissed in April 2026, succeeded first by Euro-Notions Florida and then, after Euro-Notions was also dismissed in July, by Freestyle World, Inc. v. United States, a proposed class action now before Senior Judge Richard K. Eaton. But the substance of what we predicted in March is worth revisiting, because the pattern of what actually happened since has confirmed it.
What we said would happen
Three concerns from the original Atmus order stood out. The order did not explicitly direct refunds, only recalculation. It did not reach entries that were already finally liquidated. And the government had not accepted that any order applied beyond the parties actually in front of the court, pointing to the Federal Circuit's earlier decision vacating a broad CIT order in the original V.O.S. Selections case on exactly that ground.
Our conclusion at the time: importers relying on someone else's case, rather than filing their own, were taking on real risk.
What actually happened
In July 2026, the Court of International Trade began ordering CBP to refund IEEPA duties on finally liquidated entries, the entries too old for CBP's CAPE refund portal to reach. Judge Eaton started entering those orders on July 15, 2026, across the roughly 3,700 IEEPA refund cases then pending at the court. The relief went to importers who had filed their own actions.
That is the scenario the March article was written to warn against, playing out in reverse for the importers who took the advice. The government's own conduct since March has followed the pattern we described: it has appealed the scope of the finally liquidated relief to the Federal Circuit, an appeal that remains pending, and it has continued to argue that relief should not extend to importers who never filed. Whether that appeal succeeds is still an open question. What is not open is the record so far: since July, being a plaintiff has been the difference between recovering on a finally liquidated entry and not.
We cover the mechanics of the July ruling, the deadline to act on it, and why CBP's CAPE portal does not reach these entries in IEEPA Refunds on Liquidated Entries Now Require a Court Filing.
What has changed on the administrative side
CBP's automated refund process, CAPE, launched on April 20, 2026, inside the ACE system, roughly seven weeks after the Atmus order. It has since expanded in phases to cover more entry types. CAPE remains the fastest path for the entries it reaches: unliquidated entries and entries liquidated within roughly the last 80 days. It still does not reach finally liquidated entries, which is precisely the category the July court orders are now paying out on, and precisely why filing your own action matters most for exactly the entries CAPE cannot touch.
What importers should do now
The advice from March has not changed in substance, only in what backs it up.
Audit your entries. Know which of your entries are unliquidated, which are liquidated but not yet final, and which have reached final liquidation. Your customs broker or trade counsel can pull this from ACE.
Use CAPE for what it covers. If your entries are unliquidated or liquidated within CAPE's window, that portal is the fastest route to a refund.
File your own case for entries CAPE does not reach. A Section 1581(i) action at the Court of International Trade is what has separated paid importers from unpaid ones since July on finally liquidated entries. Waiting for Freestyle World's class to be certified, rather than filing your own case now, carries its own risk: certification is not guaranteed, the timeline for it is not fixed, and the two-year deadline to bring your own Section 1581(i) claim keeps running while you wait. That is the same bet we warned against in March, and it has not paid off for the importers who made it.
To have your entries reviewed and mapped to the pathways that apply, start here and speak with an attorney.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It was originally published March 9, 2026 and has been updated to reflect developments through August 22, 2026. Consult a qualified attorney before relying on any of the foregoing for a specific entry or refund strategy.