CPSC eFiling: A General Overview

[NOTE: This is a work in progress. Information in this post may change slightly.)

If you found this page because someone in your vendor group just mentioned something about "CPSC" or "eFiling" and you went scouring the internet because you don't have a clue what they are going on about, welcome! You aren't behind, you're just catching this information in exactly the same way most find out about it.

So let's talk about this eFiling thing, yeah?

Compliance and eFiling are two different things.

I want to first separate these because they are already getting tangled together with this eFiling regulation.

Product safety compliance (shortened to "compliance") is a set of regulations related to safety that a product must follow. This usually includes testing, labeling, and certification. The certification is a self-created document that would describe a product, indicate the manufacturer, date of manufacturing, and how the product complies with the regulations it has to follow. This certifcation, typically called a Children's Product Certificate or General Certificate of Conformity, is usually just kept in your records for just in case a government official needed to see it.

eFiling is the system that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have created to help the import process be a little more efficient in regards to catching unsafe products. Instead of those certificates only being kept in your records, you now will share the information with the government prior to shipping products into the US.

NOTE: If you've been importing finished products without the compliance aspect, we may have a bit of catching up to do before your next shipment.

Is the eFiling Required

It depends on the category your products fall under. Some things you import might require eFiling while others might not. Here's a rough breakdown:

General use and adult products (bags, tea towels, bedding, etc.) are regulated by the CPSC, but don't have any specific requirements. Under the FTC, there is labeling of fiber content and country of origin. That means that you aren't specifically required to do the eFiling if you are importing this kind of product. The CPSC still highly recommends eFiling so your shipment isn't slowed, and providing a 'disclaim' code for products intended for persons over 13 years old (130.006) to your broker/shipper.

Adult clothing, specifically, has a bit of a catch here. Adult clothing does have a regulation under the CPSC to follow: Flammability of Clothing Textiles. Adult clothing can be exempt from Flammability testing under certain circumstances (like tees made with "flat" fabric) and when it is exempt from testing, it doesn't require specific certificate to be made. On the flip side, adult clothing that has a "fuzzy" surface will generally require testing and would then be required to have a certificate made. Because the adult clothing does have a specific CPSC regulation to follow, you will have to do the eFiling. For the clothing that is exempt, you can enter in the appropriate exemption code, or provide the disclaim code (130.006). For the clothing that requires testing, you'll have information to enter related to the testing and testing lab.

Children's products, all of them, have specific CPSC regulations to follow. Children's products always require a certificate regardless of needing testing or not. If you happen to have a product that has all exemptions from testing (like a plain tee), then there will be a number of exemption citations to enter. If your product required testing, you'll have more information related to the testing and testing lab here, too.

What you need to determine

1. Is the product regulated by the CPSC? It's a bit of a mine field, but the CPSC has a nice tool that can help you figure it out: Regulatory Robot
2. Does it require a CPC (for children's products) or GCC (for adult & general use products)?
3. Has testing actually been done? Check that it is under 1 year old, covers exactly your product(s), uses CPSC-specific testing (not EU), and was done by a CPSC-accepted lab?

The Mechanics of eFiling

Getting started is probably the hardest part of the system as their documentation isn't ideal. Once you get into the system and can see the actual thing, it'll go much smoother. [This] user guide is one of many that can be helpful in setting everything up. Below I've added a few of my own takeaways.

Product data and user permissions are organized by "Product Collections", so your first step will be to determine how you want to set up your 'collections' and which trade partners (if any) will have access to manage information within a collection.

One way to organize might be by manufacturer/vendor so that they can be invited to enter information into, or view, that specific collection without being able to see other collections. A collection could also be organized by product type to organize information that may only be related to it (Sleepwear Flammability testing for children's sleepwear for example).

NOTE: Trade Partners may be VAs, brokers, manufacturers, or lab reps who will be able to enter data for products.

Creating a Product (& Certificate)

You can then begin to enter in information by single certificates, or upload a CSV file to upload multiple certificates' data.

Each product entered will need a unique Product ID. This may be a SKU, GTIN, or another identifier that you create. With entering in the product details and lab details (if any), you've actually created the certificate in the system. You will now be prompted to create a Version ID.

The Version ID will change each time you update that specific certificate (for example with new lab testing), so you'll want to make sure you can manage this ID serially in some way. If you do not plan to import the same product again, auto-generating a Version ID is an option that would be good for this.

I think the hardest part of the certificate portion of the process is knowing what codes and possible exemption citations apply. To make things easier, the CPSC has identified regulatory codes and exemption citations they will be specifically using in the system (download the XSLX file here).

Multiple Sellers Together in One Shipment

I want to touch on the structure of importing when you have multiple sellers on a single buy-in shipment.

Every seller/distributor of products is always responsible for ensuring the compliance and safety of every product they sell. It doesn't matter how small a business is or even if the seller treats it like a business. So every seller who is importing a regulated product will be required to do the eFiling.

The eFiling system only allows for one account per business, but does allow for the account owner to add 'trade partners'. These partners may be the other business owners.

When the buy-in is a bunch of sellers together, one of the sellers will generally act as the 'host' - the person communicating with the manufacturer, taking the payments from the other sellers, making the payments to the manufacturer, etc. This person will now be the responsible party for the eFiling (and certifying) as well.

Now, don't get me wrong, the host always had this same responsibility for imports, nothing has really changed. It's just now the responsibility is even more clearly defined. So you'll want to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the host being liable for every seller's order at this step of the process. If there is ever a question or issue with a shipment, the port agents will contact whomever is listed on those forms.

What now?

Importing can be a daunting thing to begin with and this eFiling doesn't make it any easier, initially. If you are just learning about all of this compliance stuff, you'll want to start there before touching the eFiling system. So here's what to do next:

1. Determine what your products are and if they are regulated by the CPSC.
2. If they are regulated by the CPSC, do they have proper testing and certification?
3. If they do not have proper testing & certification, work to get that done as soon as possible.
4. Figure out who will be considered the main Business Account Administrator (the person legally responsible for all products and information).
5. Determine if you will hire a broker or other person to assist in entering information into the eFiling and ACE systems.
6. Decide how you will organize product collections and how you will identify products.
7. Start entering data for every shipment prior to it reaching a US port.