CPC and GCC certificate generator

A certificate of compliance is the importer's or manufacturer's written statement that a product meets the CPSC rules that apply to it, required by section 14 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2063). There are two kinds for finished products. A Children's Product Certificate covers products designed or intended primarily for children 12 and younger. A General Certificate of Conformity covers general use products that are subject to a CPSC rule, ban, standard or regulation.

Each certificate describes one product. It must accompany the product or shipment, be furnished to each distributor and retailer, and be available to CPSC or CBP within 24 hours of a request (16 CFR 1110.13).

For imported products the importer of record is the certifier. For products made in the United States the manufacturer is, or the private labeler if the manufacturer does not certify (16 CFR 1110.7). You may rely on a supplier's tests or certificates under 16 CFR part 1109, but you still issue your own certificate and stay legally responsible for it (16 CFR 1110.15). A factory's certificate with the factory named as certifier is not a substitute when you are the importer.

A children's product must be tested by a CPSC-accepted third party lab for each rule with a third party testing requirement before you issue a CPC. CPSC lists the rules and test methods it accepts labs for in 16 CFR 1112.15: toys under ASTM F963-23, small parts, lead content and lead paint, phthalates, the durable infant and nursery product standards, children's sleepwear and clothing flammability, coin batteries and magnets, among others. The rule picker marks these. General use products do not need a third party lab, but the GCC must still rest on a test of each product or a reasonable testing program.

1. 1
   Product identification

   A description that matches the product to the certificate, and at least one unique identifier: GTIN, model number, registered number, serial number, SKU, UPC or an alternate identifier. Lot number, style and color are optional extras.

2. 2
   Each applicable rule

   Every consumer product safety rule, ban, standard or regulation the product is certified to, listed separately. For toys, CPSC expects the specific ASTM F963-23 sections.

3. 3
   The certifier

   The importer or domestic manufacturer issuing the certificate, with name, street address, city, state or province, country, email and telephone.

4. 4
   The records custodian

   The person keeping the test records, with the same contact details. A position title is allowed if the position is always staffed. Records must be kept for at least five years under 16 CFR 1110.17.

5. 5
   Date and place of manufacture

   Month and year at least, and the manufacturer's name, address, email and telephone. For a run over several days, the first month of manufacture.

6. 6
   Date and place of testing

   The most recent test date and each lab or other party whose tests support the certificate, with full contact details. A statutory or regulatory testing exclusion is listed instead for a rule it covers.

7. 7
   Attestation

   Paper and electronic certificates must carry the attestation text set out in 16 CFR 1110.11(a)(7). For eFiled data, the attestation is part of the Product Registry and the CPSC message set.

The certificate must be in English. The CPSC lab ID is not one of the elements named in 16 CFR 1110.11, but adding it makes the lab easy to check, so the generator asks for it on a CPC.

Under the final rule published January 8, 2025 (90 FR 1800), importers must eFile the certificate data elements with CBP for regulated products entered for consumption or warehousing from July 8, 2026, and from January 8, 2027 for products entered from a foreign trade zone. The data is filed in ACE at the time of entry in one of two ways:

• Full PGA message set: your customs broker sends every certificate data element with the entry.
• Reference PGA message set: you, or a lab or broker on your behalf, enter the certificate data in CPSC's Product Registry before entry, and the entry carries only the reference identifier.

For goods imported by mail, the data goes into the Product Registry before the goods arrive. The fields on this generator follow the same elements, so a completed certificate gives your broker what the message set needs. Testing exclusion codes and message set formats are set by CPSC's CATAIR guide; ask your broker which codes they use.

Marketplaces often ask sellers of children's products for a CPC and the lab test reports behind it, when a listing is created or during a later review, and may ask for a GCC for regulated general use products. Their requirements are set by each marketplace, not by CPSC, and change over time, so check the marketplace's own help pages. Before you submit, check that the certifier is the importer, the product name or SKU matches the test report, every applicable rule is listed, and the lab is accepted for each rule you cite.