Product Safety

Consumer Product Safety Information Act (CPSIA)

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued legislation regarding the manufacturing and distirbution of products (including selling and donating) that are intended for use by children (under the age of 12 years old). We will try to outline the key information here that pertains to our largest customer base which are those creating hair-bows or other accessories which are to be sold for the use of children or to be donated to children.

Small Batch Manufacturers and Third Party Testing:

The complete details regarding the required registering as a Small Batch Manucaturer can be found on the CPSC.gov site on their Small Batch Manufacturers page and also more details on the Small Batch Manufacturers FAQ page. We highly recommend that you read both of these pages thoroughly. Here are a few key details outlined on those pages:

All children's products must be tested and compliant with the applicable children's product safety rules
Small Batch Manufacturers can obtain relief from certain aspects of the testing requirements - Products in "Group A" will still need to be tested by the Small Batch Manufacturer and products in "Group B" will not need to be tested by the Small Batch Manucturer. However, for products in "Group B", the Small Batch Manufacturer will still need to provide a General Certificate of Conformity (GCC) for that product which can be derived from the GCC provided by the manufacturer for each component used in the final product.
Small Batch Manufacturers must renew their registration every year

General Certificates of Conformity: This is the official information by the CPSC that outlines the requirements of the General Certificates of Conformity: Certificate of Conformity Requirements

Please note that there is some mis-information being circulated that there has been a "change" in the GCC required information. There has not been any changes or modifications to the requirements for these documents since the final ruling in Nov. 2008. The actual testing method used and the detailed results of those tests are not a requirement on the GCC's. Some manufacturers choose to make their lab test results public, but this is not a requirement.