April 10, 2026
July 8, 2026 is the line in the sand. After that date, the CPSC requires electronic filing of safety certificates for all regulated consumer products entering the US. If you run a Shopify store that imports products, this checklist is your action plan.
Print it. Pin it. Work through it. You have until July 8.
Every product you import has a Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code that determines its duty rate, regulatory requirements, and CPSC risk score. Many Shopify sellers use the HTS code their supplier or broker assigned without verifying it.
Action: Pull your last 3 customs entries. Check every HTS code against the USITC HTS database. A misclassified product can trigger unnecessary inspections — or miss required compliance steps entirely.
ClearPort AI's HTS Risk Checker cross-references your codes against the CPSC RAM 2.0 flagged list instantly.
Find every test report you have — from SGS, Intertek, Bureau Veritas, or any other lab. Organize them by SKU.
Action: Create a folder structure: /compliance/[SKU]/lab-reports/. For each SKU, confirm you have reports covering all required tests for that product category.
Lab reports expire. Most retailers and regulatory bodies consider reports older than 1 year to be stale. If your product design, materials, or manufacturing facility have changed, you need retesting regardless of date.
Action: Flag any lab reports older than 12 months. Schedule retesting for those SKUs before June 1.
For children's products, your lab MUST be on the CPSC's accepted lab list. For adult products, ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation is the standard.
Action: Search each lab at cpsc.gov/labsearch. Confirm they're accredited for the specific standards your products require.
Many adult apparel products qualify for Disclaimer B (Code 130.006) — meaning they're exempt from third-party testing but still need a GCC and eFiling.
Action: For each adult apparel SKU, determine: Is it plain-surface fabric? Is it over 2.6 oz/sq yard? Is it a natural fiber (cotton, linen, wool)? If yes to all three, you qualify for Disclaimer B.
ClearPort AI's Disclaimer Bot makes this determination automatically.
Every imported consumer product needs either a Children's Product Certificate (CPC) or a General Certificate of Conformity (GCC). Not a lab report — a certificate that YOU issue as the importer.
Action: For each SKU, confirm you have a valid CPC or GCC. If not, generate one using your lab report data or Disclaimer B qualification.
CPSIA Section 103 requires permanent tracking labels on all children's products. The label must include: manufacturer name, production location, date of manufacture, and batch/lot number.
Action: Audit your children's product packaging. If any SKU lacks a permanent tracking label, work with your manufacturer to add one before your next shipment.
Starting July 8, your customs broker needs a structured PGA Message Set containing 7 mandatory data elements for each product. This is the new eFiling requirement.
Action: For each SKU, extract and format: product identifier, company name, manufacturing date, manufacturing location, testing date, lab name/ID, and compliance contact. Give this to your broker in a structured format (CSV or API).
ClearPort AI's broker export generates broker-ready PGA data from your compliance records.
Your broker needs to know about the July 8 changes. Many brokers are still catching up.
Action: Call your broker and ask: "Are you set up to receive and file electronic PGA Message Sets for CPSC-regulated products?" If they don't know what you're talking about, you have a problem.
Don't wait until your July shipment to discover a filing error. Do a dry run now.
Action: Ask your broker to do a test submission using your PGA data for one SKU. Confirm the format is accepted by the ACE system.
If you sell to EU customers (directly or via marketplaces), you need to start building Digital Product Passports (DPPs) for your products.
Action: For your top 10 EU-selling SKUs, create a DPP with: material composition, country of origin, care instructions, and end-of-life disposal guidance.
ClearPort AI creates EU-compliant DPPs with QR codes in under 10 minutes per product.
The EU Green Claims Directive takes effect September 2026. Words like "sustainable," "eco-friendly," "green," and "carbon neutral" are illegal without verified data.
Action: Search your Shopify store, Amazon listings, and marketing materials for these terms. Either remove them or prepare the data to back them up (carbon footprint calculations, certifications, lifecycle assessments).
Shopify product data often has gaps that matter for compliance: missing materials, vague descriptions, no country of origin.
Action: For each product, ensure your Shopify listing includes: exact material composition (with percentages), country of manufacture, and care instructions. This data feeds both US compliance and EU DPP requirements.
Regulations change. New HTS codes get flagged. Lab accreditations expire. You need ongoing monitoring, not a one-time fix.
Action: Subscribe to CPSC alerts, set calendar reminders for lab report renewals, and consider a compliance platform that tracks regulatory changes for your product categories.
ClearPort AI's alert system monitors regulatory changes and notifies you when any of your products are affected.
Manual compliance doesn't scale. If you have more than 10 SKUs, you need a system that automatically checks new products, generates certificates, and formats eFiling data.
Action: Connect your Shopify store to ClearPort AI's Shopify integration. Every new product you add gets automatically audited, and compliance gaps are flagged before you import.
| When | What to Complete |
|---|---|
| Now – April 30 | Items 1–5 (audit and gap analysis) |
| May 1 – May 31 | Items 6–10 (generate documents, set up filing) |
| June 1 – June 30 | Items 11–15 (EU prep, automation, test filings) |
| July 1 – July 7 | Final verification — confirm all PGA data is ready |
| July 8 | Mandatory eFiling begins |
This checklist looks long, but most items take less than an hour each. The biggest mistake isn't failing to comply — it's waiting until July 1 to start. By then, every lab is backed up, every broker is overwhelmed, and every compliance tool has a waitlist.
Start today. Work through one item per day. By June, you'll be done while your competitors are just discovering they have a problem.
ClearPort AI's Shopify integration automates most of this checklist. Connect your store, run the audit, and get a compliance score in minutes. Start your free audit today.