Pandora bracelet from PANDORA concept store.
Franziska Krug | German Select | Getty Images
Companies around the world are lining up for redemptions as the impact of U.S. tariffs becomes clear during the first quarter earnings season.
philips Pandora and Pandora announced Wednesday their intention to apply for tariff rebates in response to President Donald Trump’s April 2025 “Emancipation Day” blitz.
After the Supreme Court ruled in February that a wide range of Trump’s duties were illegal, the Trump administration launched a portal to process refunds that could leave the United States seeking an estimated $175 billion in restitution.
The first tranche is expected to be issued by around May 11, according to an order filed Tuesday with the U.S. Court of International Trade, Reuters reported.
Companies across Europe point to tariff disruptions as a contributing factor to the lopsided earnings picture.
Roy Jacobs, CEO of health tech company Philips, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday morning that “we will seek a refund of the tariffs in line with government policy.”
“We have always said that of course we would prefer a world without tariffs and trade barriers because we want to serve our patients.”
Philips included customs costs in its full-year guidance and did not anticipate the impact of potential refunds.
Danish jeweler Pandora also announced its intention to apply for rebates on Wednesday, with CEO Berta de Pablos Barbier telling CNBC that the tariffs were a “headwind” to first-quarter earnings.
“There’s no news yet, so we can’t expect a refund,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” “Let’s wait and see.”
De Pablos-Barbier said the biggest factor impacting Pandora’s earnings this quarter is the cost of silver, which has more than quadrupled in price over the past 18 months. He reiterated the company’s switch from sterling silver to platinum as a cost-cutting measure.
BMW, Daimler, Renishaw, Smith & Nephew and Continental all warned in a number of earnings calls on Wednesday that the tariffs would hurt their results, but the companies did not say whether they would apply for rebates.
Consumer prices are unlikely to fall
Businesses often bear a portion of the tariff costs, some of which are passed on to consumers through price increases. Economists told CNBC that the tariffs have an overall inflationary impact on the economy.
Results from the latest CNBC CFO Council quarterly survey show that consumers are unlikely to benefit even though the refund process could potentially target more than 330,000 importers with about 53 million entries, according to court documents.
Twelve of the 25 chief financial officers interviewed said they planned to apply for duty refunds, but none of them intended to reduce prices in response.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the refusal to pass on the rebates to consumers at lower prices is “not surprising.”
Zandi said CFOs may be thinking “this is just compensation” given the hit to U.S. companies, including higher costs and supply chain adjustments to reduce tariff risk. “They’re going to hold them (refunds) back.”
—CNBC’s Jessica Dickler also contributed to this report.
