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What is a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC)?

A Children’s Product Certificate is a document in which the importer or domestic manufacturer certifies that a children’s product meets every CPSC safety rule that applies to it, based on testing by a CPSC-accepted laboratory. It is required by CPSIA for children’s products sold in the United States, marketplaces like Amazon ask for it, and the issuer, not the factory or the lab, is legally responsible for it.

Who issues the CPC

For imported products, the importer issues the certificate. For products made in the United States, the domestic manufacturer does. The overseas factory does not issue it, and neither does the test lab: the lab produces the test report, and the certifying party uses that report to certify compliance. If you are an Amazon or Etsy seller importing children’s products, that certifying party is you.

When the certificate must exist

The CPC must be available before the product is offered for sale: for imports, it accompanies the product through customs (CBP can ask for it at entry), and marketplaces request it during listing or compliance checks. There is no central government registry: you create the document yourself and keep it on file.

Records and retention

  • Keep CPCs and the supporting test reports: federal rules require records to be maintained for at least five years from issuance.
  • Retesting is triggered by changes in product design, manufacturing process, or component sourcing, and by extended gaps in production.
  • If Amazon challenges a listing, the CPC plus the matching test report is what answers the challenge; keep them together (the CPC ShadowOps vault pairs them automatically).

What happens without one

Marketplace consequences come first: listing suppression and funds holds. The legal exposure is broader: selling a non-compliant children’s product is a federal violation, and civil penalties scale per violation. The certificate itself costs nothing to produce correctly, which makes this one of the cheapest compliance risks to eliminate.

Questions people ask

Does the factory’s test report count as the CPC?

No. Test reports are evidence; the CPC is the certification document the importer or domestic manufacturer issues based on that evidence. Amazon will ask for both.

Do I need a new CPC for every product variation?

Certificates cover products that are identical in materials and design. Color-only variations are often covered by one certificate; a new material, factory, or model generally needs its own testing and certificate. Confirm scope with your lab.

How long is a CPC valid?

The certificate does not expire, but the testing behind it can go stale: rule changes, product or sourcing changes, and long production gaps all trigger retesting, and marketplaces commonly expect test reports less than a year old.

Where do I get a CPC?

You generate it yourself from your test data: use the free generator on this site, and the certificate is formatted with every required element and stored in your vault.

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