On July 8, 2026, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is mandating that imported consumer products requiring a Certificate of Compliance be e-filed at the time of customs entry. Prior to July 8, eFiling is optional.
eFiling will allow CPSC to process import shipments more efficiently and increase focus on higher-risk products. Key benefits include reduced hold times for compliant products, fewer examinations, and reduced costs for importers.
What Products Must be Certified?
Finished products;
Subject to a consumer product safety rule, ban, similar rule, standard, or regulation;
Imported for consumption or warehousing; or
Distributed in commerce
Importers can visit the CPSC website to learn more about how consumer products are regulated, and find a list of Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers that are flagged for CPSC.
Importers of regulated consumer products will be required to electronically file data elements from a certificate of compliance with U.S. Customs at the time of customs entry. Importers can choose between using two different data sets: 1) Full PGA Message Set, and 2) Reference PGA Message Set. The message sets are typically transmitted by a customs broker to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and CPSC. The difference is the amount of data that will need to be provided to the customs broker for the entry. Importers who enter product certificate data into CPSC’s Product Registry will only need to provide 3 data elements for the customs entry, whereas other importers will need to provide seven.
Source: CPSC eFiling Quick Start Guide
What Must be Included in a Product Certificate?
Seven data elements are required:
Product ID
Citation Codes
Manufacture Date
Manufacture Place
Product Test Date
Testing Laboratory
Point of Contact
What is the Product Registry?
The Product Registry is a repository for importers’ product certificate data. Once a product certificate is entered and certified in the Product Registry, importers must communicate the product certificate’s three Certificate Identifiers to their broker.
Certifier ID: A unique identifier created by the importer that is ultimately responsible for certifying the product certificates.
Product ID: A unique identifer for the product that is being certified. i.e., GTIN, SKU, UPC, Model Number, Serial Number, Registered Number, or Alternate ID.
Version ID: A unique identifier for the specific version of product certificate in the Product Registry.
