SerpApi.Org
Nintendo was one of countless companies that raised the price of its products in 2025 due to the tariffs imposed on other countries by the US. Now Nintendo is potentially getting a refund on some of the costs it endured due to those tariffs; customers want some of their money to be refunded, too. Nintendo will not be doing that if it can avoid it.
Even If Nintendo Gets A Tariff Refund, It Won't Be Passing Any Of It Onto Affected Customers
RAM is the current big bad in the video game industry, as its ever-increasing price is the root cause of why console prices keep going up. Last year, tariffs inflicted by the US government were getting in on that action too. However, earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that those tariffs were illegal, prompting a lot of companies, including Nintendo, to sue the US government after tariffs led to internal costs going through the roof.
Some of those costs were passed on to you, the consumers, which is why a couple of Nintendo customers filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo in April, looking to get some of their money back should Nintendo win its case against the US government. As reported by Game File, Nintendo has requested the lawsuit be dismissed, explaining to those who filed it, and anyone else who thinks they’re owed something, why it doesn’t believe they should benefit from any tariff money Nintendo might get back.
In the filing, Nintendo claims those who bought its products after the prices went up thanks to tariffs “received exactly what they bargained and paid for.” Furthermore, the statement reads, “Plaintiffs are not entitled to a rebate simply because of intervening legal developments related to tariffs.”
The tariff price hikes affected Switch 2 accessories and the cost of the original Switch. The Switch 2 price hike announcement came later and is tied to rising RAM costs, not tariffs.
“The common thread among Plaintiffs’ claims is that it is somehow ‘unfair'; that Nintendo has not retroactively adjusted its prices for completed sales in response to the outcome of the tariff litigation,” Nintendo’s statement continues, adding that this is “not how commercial transactions work.”
Who Is In The Right?
The customers who filed the lawsuit most definitely have a point. Nintendo pointed to tariffs as the reason for increasing prices. Customers paid those inflated prices, and now Nintendo will likely be refunded the extra money it cost the company to tackle the unpredictable and illegal tariffs imposed by the US government. Since it’s getting that money back, in theory, the extra money it charged customers should be returned.
In reality, it isn’t that simple. Nintendo didn’t pass all of those extra costs onto the customer. They were spread across its hardware supply chain. There is no definite number you can point to and say “this is how much extra it cost customers, this is how much we’re potentially getting back, customers should be refunded this much.”
Above all else, however, as much as Nintendo is being painted as the lesser of three evils in the great console war and seems cute, cuddly, and friendly thanks to its army of colorful and beloved mascots, it is still a business. A company whose driving force is to make money. The price hikes that were imposed due to the tariffs won’t now be reversed because the problem has gone away. The same applies to the rising costs of consoles if and when the price of RAM finally starts to drop. If people keep buying consoles at the new inflated prices, PlayStation, Xbox, and yes, even Nintendo will keep those prices high and make huge profits. Nintendo is not your friend. It has no interest in passing any of its potential savings onto you, and the only reason it’s ever interested in your bank account is when it’s thinking about how much money it can get out of it.
