{"id":490043,"date":"2026-02-21T13:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490043\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T13:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T13:59:12","slug":"vos-selections-owner-victor-schwartz-risked-his-business-to-challenge-trumps-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490043\/","title":{"rendered":"VOS Selections owner Victor Schwartz risked his business to challenge Trump\u2019s tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n When President Donald Trump announced plans to raise the nation\u2019s effective tariff rate to levels not seen since 1930 last year, most CEOs were silent. They\u2019d seen how opposing the president\u2019s ambitions \u2013 let alone his signature economic policy \u2013 could prove even more costly than the policies he enacted.\n <\/p>\n

\n With billions in annual revenue at stake, the leaders of multinational corporations generally stood still. But Victor Schwartz, the owner of small New York-based wine importer VOS Selections, took a giant step up.\n <\/p>\n

\n Schwartz became the face of the fight to overturn<\/a> Trump\u2019s most sweeping tariffs \u2014 and he won, in a case that was decided by the Supreme Court on Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n He was initially hesitant to take on such a prominent role, he told CNN in an interview after the verdict on Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was one thing to join the case, but then to be the lead plaintiff really gave me pause,\u201d Schwartz said.\n <\/p>\n

\n He stepped into that role after a family member put him in touch with the Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian-leaning nonprofit public-interest law firm. The Liberty Justice Center was preparing to challenge the unprecedented use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to unilaterally impose the tariffs \u2014 and after speaking with dozens of other small businesses, the group selected Schwartz as the lead plaintiff.\n <\/p>\n

\n With corporate America largely on the sidelines, Schwartz said he felt like the \u201clast line of defense\u201d in putting a stop to the tariffs he viewed as a grave violation of executive powers and a threat to his family-run business.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n So on April 14, 2025, the Liberty Justice Center filed the case titled VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump. It was eventually consolidated with similar cases filed by 12 states and Learning Resources, an educational supply company.\n <\/p>\n

\n He was victorious in the end, with the Supreme Court ruling that Trump\u2019s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal<\/a>. But Schwartz\u2019s win came at a personal cost.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am under constant attack through text, email and I can\u2019t stop it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little ugly. I guess it could be uglier. We keep our doors locked at the office.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Schwartz\u2019s business imports wine and spirits from 16 countries. He is no stranger to the nation\u2019s complex tariff code and how quickly rates can change, especially when Trump is in office. For instance, at one point last year, Trump threatened a 50% tariff on products from the European Union.\n <\/p>\n

\n The economic environment now, especially in my industry, certainly is very unhealthy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had to go through every item in our book over since \u2018Liberation Day,\u2019 I think, at least four times.\u201d (Trump coined April 2, 2025, the day he unveiled his now-overturned tariffs, as \u201cLiberation Day.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

\"Schwartz<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe can\u2019t just raise our prices, and we just can\u2019t pay it, unlike big companies that can just write a check,\u201d he added. Since April, he estimates he\u2019s had to pay at least six figures in tariffs.\n <\/p>\n

\n The victory for Schwartz could mean he and other importers may be due hefty refunds<\/a> totaling at least $134 billion, according to US Customs and Border Protection tariff revenue data as of December 14. But it remains to be seen exactly how that would work.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Friday\u2019s verdict won\u2019t stop Trump from pushing other kinds of tariffs. Already, the president signed a 10% global tariff<\/a> on Friday under a separate trade law and hinted at several other remedies aimed at restricting imports.\n <\/p>\n

\n Schwartz said he\u2019s worried about the other tariffs Trump could impose, but at least they would be much more restricted in scope and have time limits.\n <\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

\n The risk of going up against the world\u2019s most powerful man wasn\u2019t lost on Schwartz.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe try to tamp down our fear but still recognize the challenges of what\u2019s out there,\u201d Schwartz said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Even big corporations have gotten backlash for pointing out the costs of Trump\u2019s tariffs. Amazon drew the administration\u2019s ire following reports that the e-commerce giant planned to display how tariffs were impacting prices.\n <\/p>\n

\n But after speaking with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Trump said the company wouldn\u2019t move forward with that. (A company spokesperson at the time, however, told CNN the move \u201cwas never a consideration for the main Amazon.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n

\n For Schwartz, positive support from other businesses all over the country and across the political spectrum has kept him going through the criticism.\n <\/p>\n

\n Similarly, Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, has taken a lot of pride in challenging the Trump administration\u2019s tariffs.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe math was simple: I could not afford the tax that they wanted to hit me with,\u201d Woldenberg told CNN. Unlike Schwartz, however, he\u2019s had to cover his own legal fees, which totaled \u201cseven figures.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI wanted my name in this lawsuit. I didn\u2019t do anything wrong,\u201d Woldenberg said.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n Alan Morrison, who was the lead attorney in a case that challenged the blanket steel tariffs Trump put in place during his first term, understands why so many businesses have shied away from this kind of face-off.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe threatens individual companies. He grants exceptions. All of this makes people feel very vulnerable,\u201d Morrison said.\n <\/p>\n

\n With the lawsuit Morrison led, large corporations got the benefit of \u201csitting back and waiting to see what happens\u201d in the current tariff litigation.\n <\/p>\n

\n In this case though, thousands of corporations, including Costco, have preemptively sued the US government<\/a> in an effort to secure their stake in a refund without having to put their reputation on the line as Schwartz and Woldenberg have.\n <\/p>\n

\n Schwartz doesn\u2019t mind that corporate America can benefit from the risk he took: \u201cSo it takes a little match to start the fire. Okay, I\u2019ll take that. I\u2019m not going to feel badly about that. I\u2019m going to feel proud about that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n To celebrate the victory, Schwartz said he\u2019ll be opening up an old bottle of Ch\u00e2teauneuf-du-Pape.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When President Donald Trump announced plans to raise the nation\u2019s effective tariff rate to levels not seen since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-490043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}