The five things the CPSIA requires of sellers
- Meet the limits: total lead (Section 101), lead in paint (16 CFR 1303), and the eight-phthalates ban (16 CFR 1307).
- Third-party testing: children’s products must be tested by CPSC-accepted laboratories for the applicable rules.
- Certification: issue a Children’s Product Certificate for every product, citing the rules it meets.
- Tracking labels: permanent identifying marks on the product and packaging (Section 103).
- Recordkeeping: certificates and test records kept for at least five years and producible on request.
Why the law exists
The CPSIA passed after a wave of 2007 recalls involving lead-painted toys and magnet hazards. It shifted children’s product safety from reactive recalls to preventive certification: the burden moved upstream to importers and manufacturers, where it stays today. Marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart enforce it commercially with their own document requests, which is where most sellers first meet it.
The vocabulary you will meet
- CPC: Children’s Product Certificate, the document you issue per product.
- CPSC-accepted lab: the only laboratories whose testing counts for children’s products.
- Tracking label: permanent batch and producer information on the product.
- eFiling: the moving regime of filing certificate data electronically at import (live since July 2026).
Questions people ask
Does the CPSIA apply to Etsy and handmade sellers?
Yes: it applies to children’s products sold in the US regardless of who made them or where they were sold. Small-batch makers follow the same testing and certification path.
Does the CPSIA apply outside the United States?
The CPSIA is US law. Other markets have their own regimes (CE/EN 71 in Europe, for example). Products sold into multiple markets need to satisfy each one.
What is the difference between the CPSIA and the CPSC?
The CPSC is the agency; the CPSIA is the law. The agency enforces the law and maintains the rules (like the toy standard) that flow from it.
Where do I start with CPSIA compliance?
Identify the rules for your product, test at a CPSC-accepted lab, issue the CPC, and keep records. The generator on this site produces the certificate, and the checklist walks the whole path.
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