Home / Can you sell without a CPC?

Last reviewed: September 2026 · Copy link

Can you sell without a CPC?

No. Federal law requires every children’s product sold or offered for sale in the United States to have a Children’s Product Certificate issued by the importer or domestic manufacturer, based on third-party testing. Selling without one is a violation regardless of whether anyone has asked you for the document yet, and marketplaces enforce it with listing removals long before regulators arrive.

Use the free generator right here

No account, no upload: the certificate is built in your browser and saved to your local vault.

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What happens without one

  • Marketplaces: listing suppression, funds holds, and account-level compliance flags.
  • Customs: children’s products can be refused entry or seized at import when certificate data is missing under the eFiling regime.
  • The CPSC: civil penalties are calculated per violation, and recall costs land on top.

How to become compliant quickly

The fast path: have your product tested at a CPSC-accepted laboratory (one to three weeks), then issue the CPC from the test data with the free generator on this site, and keep the certificate and report together in the vault. Total elapsed time from uncompliant to compliant is typically two to three weeks, and the certificate itself costs nothing.

Questions people ask

What if I only sell a few units?

The obligation does not have a volume threshold: one unit sold without certification is still a violation. The good news is the certificate costs nothing to generate.

Is a CE mark a substitute for a CPC?

No: CE marking is the European regime. US children’s products need US certification, and the tests differ.

Nobody has ever asked me for a CPC. Why bother?

Because enforcement is reactive: the first request usually arrives with a deadline attached. Sellers with documents ready answer in minutes; sellers without them lose listings.

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