Hermeslines

The E-com Logistics Weekly • April 16 – April 23, 2026

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Welcome to this week’s edition of E-com Logistics Weekly. If this week had a theme, it would be “The Squeeze.”

Between the political pressure to abandon billions in tariff refunds, a complete military deadlock in the world’s most vital shipping lane, and a massive legal battle over who actually controls your product pricing, the supply chain is feeling the heat from every possible angle.

Let’s dive in.

Trade & Tariffs: The Refund Staredown

The battle over who actually gets the massive tariff refunds is heating up, and it is turning into a direct political staredown. US Customs and Border Protection opened an online portal this week for businesses to explicitly apply for refunds.

On the logistics side, operators are trying to make things right. According to Yahoo Finance, shipping companies (UPS, FedEx, and DHL) are beginning a major tariff refund push, stating that “All three companies are also pairing their requests with promises to pass along the money to their customers.”

However, the administration is actively attempting to stop that cash from leaving the Treasury. Articles report that President Trump is actively encouraging companies not to seek their tariff refunds. The pressure isn’t subtle, either; Quartz notes that intense political pressure regarding the refunds is being applied directly to mega-corporations like Apple and Amazon. Asked on CNBC whether companies such as Apple and Amazon had avoided submitting refund requests out of concern about offending him, Trump said, “Brilliant if they don’t do that.” He added: “If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them.”

According to Bloomberg “Thousands of companies, including Costco Wholesale Corp. and FedEx Corp., have separately filed lawsuits in the Court of International Trade in order to preserve their right to a refund should the Trump administration issue a challenge.”

Geopolitics: Deadlock Over Hormuz

According to reporting by The Spokesman-Review, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz after failing to meet for a fresh round of peace talks. President Trump has extended the original truce indefinitely while Washington waits for Iran to submit a new peace proposal.

However, the U.S. is maintaining a strict naval blockade on ships going to and from Iran’s ports to pile on pressure, a move Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called a direct violation of the ceasefire. In retaliation, “Iran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz – effectively shut since the start of the war at the end of February – or take part in peace talks until the U.S. naval blockade ends.“

“As soon as they break this blockade, I think that the next round of the negotiations will take place in Islamabad,” Amir-Saeid Iravani was cited as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news site.

Oil climbed on Wednesday, with Brent trading above $101 a barrel as waterways become increasingly militarized. Iranian state TV reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two ships – the MSC Francesca and Epaminondas – in the Strait of Hormuz, bringing them to shore for inspection. The Wall Street Journal further reported that both vessels, along with a third ship named the Euphoria, came under fire during the incidents. This follows a major escalation on Sunday, where the U.S. Navy fired upon an Iranian cargo ship before seizing it in the Gulf of Oman.

With no sign that Hormuz will be reopened to international shipments anytime soon, the likelihood of supply shortages and a global inflation crisis is increasing rapidly. For e-com operators, this means fuel surcharges are about to spike across the board. With ocean freight forced to reroute and crude oil crossing the $100 threshold, expect carriers to quietly hike their fuel indices and war-risk premiums, squeezing your logistics margins even tighter in the coming months.

Logistics & E-commerce: Price Fixing and Postal Crises

This week brought massive revelations regarding the hidden forces that control fulfillment costs and merchant pricing.

The legal curtain is finally being pulled back on Amazon’s control over third-party pricing, and the details are absolutely insane. The Guardian reports that newly unsealed records from the California Attorney General’s antitrust lawsuit reveal Amazon’s explicit price-fixing tactics. The documents detail how the platform allegedly punishes sellers who dare to offer their products at a lower price on competing websites. How sensitive is the algorithm? In one unsealed deposition, the owner of a clothing company testified that Amazon stripped his “Buy Box” over a single penny difference! His toddler pajamas were $19.99 on Amazon and $19.98 on Walmart. To survive, he was forced to artificially raise his Walmart prices. Furthermore, another Pennsylvania garden supplier testified that losing the Buy Box because of a lower price on Wayfair caused his Amazon sales to plummet by 80%. “In one example, the state alleged, an Amazon engineer described the company’s use of Buy Box suppression and an internal program, known as SC-FOD, to undermine vendors’ willingness to sell products on Temu.” This arguably validates what multi-channel sellers have screamed about for years: you are held hostage by the Buy Box. If you try to build your own Shopify store, or list on Walmart or Wayfair, and pass your margin savings directly to your customers, Amazon’s algorithm, allegedly, actively throttles your primary revenue stream. With Amazon now controlling a staggering 56% of US e-commerce retail spending, it is a closed-loop system designed to artificially inflate prices across the entire internet just so Amazon can claim they have the “lowest” price.

Meanwhile, the United States Postal Service is in dire financial straits, and private carriers are taking full advantage of the blood in the water. According to Truthout, as the Postal Service faces a massive cash crisis, FedEx and UPS poured nearly $20 million into federal lobbying in 2025. While the USPS recently secured a critical deal in April 2026 to retain 80% of Amazon’s package volume, the agency is still projecting a net loss for the year. Experts argue the lobbying remains a highly calculated move to ensure that even with major customers like Amazon on board, the USPS is legally hamstrung from competing on price. “The Postal Service is no longer a financial or economic issue,” James O’Rourke, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, told OpenSecrets. “It’s a political issue.” The situation highlights a massive conflict of interest within the supply chain. As Steve Hutkins, a retired NYU professor, noted, FedEx and UPS are simultaneously the USPS’s rivals, contractors, and in some cases, its largest customers. This gives the private carriers a unique vantage point to lobby against the USPS expanding into new revenue streams or offering cheaper competitive package products. By lobbying to force the USPS to assign a higher “appropriate share” of overhead costs to its packages, rivals hope to force USPS prices upward, making their own exorbitant rates more competitive. For e-com operators, this is a direct threat to shipping margins. If FedEx and UPS succeed in legislatively forcing the USPS to hike its package delivery rates, cheap lightweight shipping options will vanish, and your fulfillment costs will skyrocket overnight in a duopoly market.

While lobbying aggressively against the post office, UPS is at least bolstering its internal infrastructure. A press release from Logistics Trends & Insights notes that UPS is rolling out new RFID (radio frequency identification) sensing technology across its network to eliminate manual scans and reduce misloads. For merchants shipping high-value goods, this is a rare piece of good news. Better RFID tracking means fewer “lost in transit” claims, faster SLA compliance, and much higher visibility when dealing with customer support tickets regarding delayed packages.

That’s all for this week! Stay nimble. See you all next week!

Note: This information is intended to inform Hermeslines clients and partners about industry developments, including but not limited to decisions of courts and administrative bodies. Nothing in this update should be construed as legal advice, a legal opinion, or customs consulting. Readers should not act upon the information contained in this alert without seeking the advice of a licensed customs broker or legal counsel. Views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of Hermeslines or its clients. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Hermeslines does not claim ownership of the original reporting; please refer to the linked sources for full articles and original attribution. This content is intended for commentary, news reporting, and educational purposes under the Fair Use provisions of Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal or customs advice.

References

Trade & Tariffs

Geopolitics

Logistics & E-commerce