On December 18, 2024, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) approved a final rule to implement electronic filing (eFiling) of certificates of compliance (CoC) for imported consumer products that are subject to a CPSC rule, ban, standard, or regulation (Final Rule). All five CPSC Commissioners voted to approve the Final Rule, and a majority voted to approve an amendment extending the staff-recommended effective date from 12 months to 18 months from publication in the Federal Register. A 24-month effective date will apply to covered consumer products imported into a Foreign Trade Zone.

Currently, importers of regulated products are required to create and maintain CoCs attesting to compliance with mandatory requirements applicable to their products, but a CoC need not be filed at the time of importation. CPSC may request a CoC—and importers must promptly provide it, typically in a PDF or paper format—after staff flags a shipment for examination. The Final Rule will change this. After the effective date, CoC data will have to be electronically filed at the time of entry by transmitting message set data into the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

While the Commission approved a significant extension of the effective date from the original 3-month requirement of the proposed rule, the substantive elements of the Final Rule were essentially unchanged. (We previously wrote about the proposed e-filing rule and industry comments here and discussed the proposed revisions to the related CoC here). In brief, the Final Rule requires that importers (or their brokers) eFile several data elements at the time of filing an entry, including:

• identification of the finished product (certificates for each product are required);
• party certifying compliance;
• each consumer product safety rule to which the finished product has been certified; 
• date and place the finished product was manufactured; 
• date and place the finished product was most recently tested for compliance and 
• contact information for the person maintaining test records.

Although the Final Rule does not change or expand the products requiring certifications because it does not alter underlying substantive requirements, it does apply to small shipments (typically less than $800 per day by a single importer) of regulated products. Clearly, imports, especially from China, including direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales, are one major target of the Final Rule, though a majority of consumer products are not subject to specific CPSC regulations requiring certification.

How the Final Rule will be enforced as to de minimis shipments remains unclear, particularly with regard to direct-to-consumer imports. Consumers who purchase or receive imported products for personal use are typically excluded from the definition of “importer,” but questions remain around finding a responsible entity for direct-to-consumer shipments and seeing potentially significant disruptions in consumers receiving their online purchases.

A press release announcing the action is available at CPSC Approves Final Rule to Implement eFiling for Certificates of Compliance | CPSC.gov and includes separate statements from each of the Commissioners.