From jewelers to health tech, CEOs want tariff refunds as earnings take a hit

Companies around the world are lining up for reimbursement, as the impact of U.S. tariffs is laid bare during the first-quarter earnings season.

Philips and Pandora on Wednesday announced their intentions to apply for tariff rebates in the wake of President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” blitz in April 2025.

After the Supreme Court ruled Trump’s sweeping duties illegal in February, the Trump administration launched a portal for processing refunds that could put the U.S. on the hook for an estimated $175 billion in redress.

The first tranche is expected to be issued by around May 11, according to ​an order filed on Tuesday in the U.S. ‌Court of International Trade, Reuters reported.

Companies across Europe are flagging disruption from tariffs as a factor contributing to a skewed earnings picture.

“We will ask for a rebate of tariffs in line with the government policies,” Roy Jakobs, CEO of healthtech firm Philips, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday morning. 

“We have been saying that of course we prefer a world without tariffs, without trade barriers, because we want to serve patients.”

Philips included the cost of tariffs within its full-year guidance and did not assume the impact from any potential refunds.

Danish jeweler Pandora also announced its intention to apply for a rebate on Wednesday, with CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier telling CNBC that tariffs were a “headwind” to earnings in the first quarter. 

“We have no news yet, so we cannot count on any of that refund,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” “Let’s wait and see.”

De Pablos-Barbier noted that the biggest factor impacting Pandora’s profit this quarter is the cost of silver, which more than quadrupled in the last 18 months. She reiterated the firm’s pivot from pure silver to platinum as a way of reducing costs.

BMW, Daimler, Renishaw, Smith & Nephew and Continental all flagged tariffs as negatively impacting results in a slew of earnings updates on Wednesday, but the companies did not say whether they are applying for rebates.

Businesses often bear some of the cost of tariffs, with some costs passing on to consumers through price hikes. Tariffs have had an overall inflationary impact on the economy, economists have told CNBC.

Despite the refund process potentially covering ​more ⁠than 330,000 importers on roughly 53 million entries, per court documents, consumers are unlikely to benefit, according to the results of the latest CNBC CFO Council quarterly survey. 

Twelve of the 25 chief financial officers interviewed said their company plans to apply for tariff refunds, however, none intend to lower prices in response.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said a refusal to pass on rebates to consumers through lower prices is “not a surprise.”

After factoring in the toll on U.S. businesses — including higher costs and supply chain adjustments to reduce tariff exposure — CFOs may be thinking “this is just compensation,” Zandi said. “They are going to hold on to those [refunds].”

— CNBC’s Jessica Dickler also contributed to this report.