Odd question perhaps

[Former_Member]

I live in Sweden and have a question that might seem a little odd, I essentially like to know where to draw the line...

If I sell an item through my Etsy shop then I must apply to all the cpsia and ftc rules, right?? (Because my shop is listed at Etsy which is in a US domain.)

But what if a buyer finds me through my blog or at a swedish online store, does the same rules apply? What if an american on vacation in Sweden buys my stuff at an art&craft-fair?? Would it matter if they bought FROM or IN Sweden?

Is there anywhere to mail questions like this, the proper authority must be having some kind of service answering the questions on this subject or am I wrong assuming that??

[Former_Member]

Yes, it applies to Sales to the USA from other Countries...certainly not an issue if the adult Buyer purchases it in Sweden, it is not likely that Baby Booties/whatever will be confiscated at Customs..LOL

[knitwit4ever]

CPSIA and other U.S. laws apply to products made in the U.S. and to those those shipped into the U.S.

If you don't ship to the U.S., your product would not need to follow those rules.

If an American bought your item outside the U.S., then brought it into the country, they would be the "importer" and responsible for compliance (though as anicka says, it's not too likely Customs would do much for a single item).

It has been reported that U. S. Customs has the right/responsibility to insure compliance for products coming into the U.S. but technically for purchased merchandise, the importer is the purchaser, so the responsibility is theirs. Of course, were a product to be seized at the border and your buyer not receive it, you'd still end up refunding/replacing the item...

[Former_Member]

You need to first and foremost need to follow the local and country wide laws of your homeland. In the case of Sweden you may also need to follow the EU testing or standards and practices of manufacturing for certain products. Once you decide to sell international is when you need to follow the laws of other countries concerning your products. Any country's customs clearing officals can refuse to complete the delivery of any package based on any number of laws for that particular country.

With the CPSIA and the FTC it is the physical address that the product is being exported to that determines if you need to follow those 2 laws, plus any others laws & regulations that may concern a particular product. The domain registry has little to do with with the manufacturing or labeling laws, at least for the USA. So if a product is going to be shipped to a customer in the USA, or possibly the US territories, then you need to follow US laws including the FTC and CPSIA as they apply to a particular item.
As for sending the item through the post or if the customer personally carries it home from abroad there is little difference. If a US customs official sees an item as a violation of any USA law the item can be confiscated and possible destroyed. The difference lies in the fact that through the mail there is the chance neither you or the customer may ever know the reason why the package went missing while a customer carring the item bought in Sweden might be told something if their luggage is being inspected in front of them.

Pretty much any country can refuse a product's entry to that country regardless of what way it arrives and customs officials can do whatever they see fit to do with the item. Most times 1 of 2 things happen when the package or product is visually inspected & seized for failure to follow whatever law:
1) The product or packaged is confiscated, & possibly destroyed, with or without notification to the seller or customer.
2) The product or package is refused entry and sent back to the sender, ussually at the senders exepense, with or without an explaination.
Does that mean if you send an item to a country without finding out all of their laws on the product that every shipment will have problems? Actually no, but only because not every package is visually inspected. You can take a chance on sending items internationally without following all of the recieving country's laws, but you have to be equally willing to refund the customer or replace item with one that follows the laws and has all the correct documentation for that particular country if the package gets confiscated or goes missing.


Here's a link to the contact information for the CPSC the government agency that over sees the CPSIA http://www.cpsc.gov/about/contact.html
Don't hold your breath about a personal answer though, they rarely answer without the question being submitted by a lawyer or attorney, but the more they are asked a certain question the more likely they are to put it as one of their FAQs on one of the CPSIA pages.

More essential reading about the CPSIA, if at all possible read all the additional links provided and subsections as well.
For the current full list of raw materials offically exempt from CPSIA lead testing please read http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr09/leaddeterminationsfinalrule-draft.pdf
An update on the stay of 3rd party & component testing
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10083.html
Tracking labels required on every product for children under 13
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/sect103policy.pdf
The CPSIA main pages
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html
FTC main
http://www.ftc.gov
Clothing, accessories and home furnishings care and content labeling
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/textile/bus21.shtm#covered
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/textile/bus50.shtm#Complying
Here's info about small parts warnings
Small Parts Regulations Summary http://www.cpsc.gov/BUSINFO/regsumsmallparts.pdf
Small Parts labeling
http://www.cpsc.gov/BUSINFO/label.pdf
and how they should appear in your listings / ads
http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/FOIA/FOIA08/brief/toygameads.pdf page 19 of the PDF has the abbreviations & page 20 of the PDF has the warning examples are in black-n-white but I believe they need to be in certain colors on the actual label for the physical product.

[Former_Member]

you only need to follow your local laws & regulations

if you should sell to the USA, then it is your customer who is responsible for ensuring it complies with CPSIA etc - something a private buyer is unlikely to bother about

Only if you are wholesaling to the USA for re-sale will your customer want proof of compliance


and FYI -- many European regulations are already stricter than CPSIA anyway

[JewelryDesignsbyDee]

very confusing

[chicfragments]

Wow... marking to check out all the links posted above another time (I sell jewelry but also knit)

[Former_Member]

MarmaladySupplies says:
you only need to follow your local laws & regulations

if you should sell to the USA, then it is your customer who is responsible for ensuring it complies with CPSIA etc - something a private buyer is unlikely to bother about

Only if you are wholesaling to the USA for re-sale will your customer want proof of compliance

====================
I believe you are mistaken Marmaldysupplies


jewelrydesignsbyME has laid it out correctly above this folkesdotter

[Former_Member]

the USA cannot force their regulations on producers in another country

for individual sales to private usa citizens, jewelrydesigns implies it is upto the customs officer to judge whether an item complies -- and as even people making childrens items seem to be having difficulty understanding all the ins & outs, I cannot see any customs officer having rigourous enough training on this to make any judgement - so you are extremely unlikely to have any difficulty
Wholesaling however will need documentation

But, as most EU regulations are similar to, or stricter than, CPSIA if you are compliant with all the regs in your own country you should be meeting the regs for USA

[Former_Member]

marmalady I think she is just saying that it is the law and the customs officials can and will take it if they see it... they may not always see it as they only spot check... but in theory they can and will deny the item... any country can deny what comes in.

I have traveled and had things taken from my suitcase... though usually coming into US lol

[Former_Member]

BTW it goes without saying that if you are not planning to sell and ship to the US then obviously you don't need to worry about these laws.US can't control what you do in your country.

True if someone is on vacation and buys in person they may in theory have it taken from them by customs (I have had this happen to me when I have been coming back from vacation abroad) however as a customer when that happens I always just kick myself in the pants ... like" gosh i should have checked if I could bring that home" rather than hold it against the store I bought it from over seas.

If I had bought on-line and was expecting the person to ship it to me because they said they could and it didn't arrive I might view it differently

[Former_Member]

The EU standards may be stricter but that doesn't stop the CPSC from requiring its own battery of tests to prove that things meet the (relatively) new US standards.

But yep, as long as you're not shipping to or from the US, the CPSIA is a non-issue for you.

[Former_Member]

This thread may be getting a flogging

[Former_Member]

Wow, thanks for all the replies and thanks for all the links.

I have some reading to do...

[Former_Member]

MarmaladySupplies says:
the USA cannot force their regulations on producers in another country

___________________________________

you are kinda right.

china isn't responsible for their products lead content. the companies that hire them to make their items are responsible for making sure that the factories adhere to the lead laws before importing them and selling them here.

it's unlikely that customs would stop a pair of baby booties, but... if your items did contain lead, and you didn't disclose that to your buyer, you'd be held accountable. no matter where you live.

EU standards are stricter, but use component testing certification.

go figure.


don't stress, folkesdotter... just know your supplies. toxins are bad for kiddos, no matter where you live.

;)

[Former_Member]

I would say toxins is bad for everyone and (hopefully) no one would intentionally sell products containing any. (except for the chemicals in clothing preventing mold and bugs during transport... go figure)

Here in Sweden a couple of quite big stores lately had to take some jewellry off their shelfs because of to high lead content. Here we also have laws about the amount of nickel content (is that the proper english word) in jewellry. But that's it, no big lawsuits is likely to come out of it.

The shops responsibility is not to sell anything that doesn't meet with the regulations but they don't have to label every content (if it's not food).

I sometime buy yarn, fabric and jewelry from fleamarkets and charity shops and then there is no way of telling if there might have been lead involved in the process of making it. I guess selling any vintage stuff to US is out of the question as the contents can't be told without tests.

Thanks again everyone for contributing to this thread, I guess I will not be listing internationally until I've read up more on the subject.

Maggie/Folkesdotter

P.S. Whats flogging??

[Former_Member]

i want to add in that china actually has really strict lead standards, they just don't stick to them when it comes to cheap manufacturing.

most textiles are safe, without plastic coatings.

companies that make PVC and oil clothes are working on safe fabrics.


jewelry, i just assume it's base metal, if it's not labeled otherwise.

and nickel makes my ears turn red. :)

[Former_Member]

*cloths.... woo. time for bed.

[Former_Member]

You can sell things made from vintage yarns etc to US buyers, as long as they aren't intended for the 12-and-under crowd. So you could make a pair of adult socks or an adult hat from that yarn and sell it perfectly legally in the US to a US buyer, but not a child's pair of socks or hat.

[Former_Member]

CPSIA only applies to you if you will be selling items intended for use by, or primarily for, children under the age of 12 (or was that 13?), in the USA.

If the items are for adults, or are for children but not sold to USA customers, you're fine.

[Former_Member]

It's 12 and under...FayeMaloneDesigns clarified this another thread...

So, until a child is 13...