Nintendo of America has just unveiled a new storewide promotion it’s calling the “Customer Appreciation Sale“, which, according to the announcement post, is one of the largest promotions ever. Except that the discounts are being funded, at least in part, by those tariff refunds that the company is simultaneously arguing in federal court that it has no legal obligation to pass on to consumers.

According to Nintendo’s own news blast, the Customer Appreciation Sale runs from September 13 through September 26 across the Nintendo eShop, the Nintendo Store, and participating retailers. It covers 30% off dozens of Nintendo Switch digital games and bundles, plus discounts on select physical games, DLC, accessories, amiibo, and apparel. Here’s the line that’s causing the big stir among Nintendo fans:

The Customer Appreciation Sale is our way of saying thank you to Nintendo players for their continued support and is made possible in part by tariff-related refunds. While Nintendo absorbed most tariff-related costs, the refunds helped make promotions like this one possible.

The announcement is already being dissected on Reddit, forums, and social media, with fans reacting pretty much as you’d expect them to.

To fully understand why this sale is getting side-eyed instead of applause, though, the whole backstory is needed. Throughout 2025, Nintendo (as well as Sony and Microsoft) raised hardware prices, citing tariffs imposed under the Trump administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Switch accessories and other related products saw price bumps tied directly to that policy. Then, on February 20, 2026, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the executive branch never had the legal authority to impose those tariffs in the first place. That ruling triggered a wave of refunds from the federal government back to importers, including the console makers who’d paid the tariffs and then passed the added cost on to buyers.

The refunds have since been substantial: Sony alone has recovered roughly $356 million of an expected $508 million total, while Nintendo’s own tariff refund disclosed last month was worth around $300 million. So the sequence goes: tariffs go into effect, companies raise prices to cover them, the Supreme Court says the tariffs were illegal, the government refunds the companies, and now Nintendo is using a slice of that windfall to fund a sale that requires customers to spend more money to see any benefit.

Why Fans Are Calling It a “Faux Sale”

The core criticism is as straightforward as they come. Nintendo decided not to give money back to the people who paid the tariff-inflated prices in 2025; instead, it turned that refund into a marketing angle for a new promotion that still asks those same customers to open their wallets. That distinction matters because Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are all actively fighting in court to avoid a more direct outcome. Multiple class-action lawsuits have been filed by consumers arguing that, since the tariffs were ruled unconstitutional, the price hikes justified by those tariffs should be reversed, or refunds should be issued to the buyers who effectively fronted the cost.

All three companies have taken the same position: no, they don’t have to. Nintendo moved first, filing to dismiss a tariff-refund lawsuit back in July, arguing that consumers have no legal standing to claim customs duties that were refunded to the importer of record, not to individual buyers. Sony followed by asking a federal judge in California’s Northern District to toss a similar suit, with its lawyers writing bluntly that paying fair market price for voluntarily purchased consumer goods is not a legally cognizable injury in fact. Microsoft has made an almost identical argument in a Washington state lawsuit, stating that customers received exactly what they paid for at the advertised price and therefore have no claim to a refund, while also pushing for arbitration as an alternative to a full court case.

None of the three companies denies that they raised prices in response to tariffs, and none denies that they’re now receiving refunds for those same tariffs after the Supreme Court struck them down. Their legal argument is simply that there’s no law that forces them to share a government refund with the customers whose purchases generated the tariff liability in the first place. Unless a judge rules otherwise and a class action succeeds, that’s likely to remain the case.

Seen in isolation, Nintendo’s Customer Appreciation Sale could pass as a welcome gesture. Seen next to the ongoing litigation, it looks more like a company trying (unsuccessfully, in all likelihood) to get ahead of a PR problem without actually resolving the underlying complaint. Nintendo tries to frame $300 million in refunded tariff money as generosity, while its lawyers simultaneously argue in a separate courtroom that the company owes those same customers nothing.

Sony and Microsoft haven’t tried the “appreciation sale” angle, at least not yet, but they’re playing the identical legal hand, so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see them come up with similar initiatives of their own – unless the backlash from this one convinces them to pursue some other angle.

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.

In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.

Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.

His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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