United States · Mandatory
CPSIA
The US children's product safety law. Requires third-party testing and a certificate — a genuinely stronger testing requirement than EU self-declaration.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act governs products designed primarily for children 12 and under. It sets limits on total lead content and on phthalates, and — importantly — requires that children's products be tested by a CPSC-accepted third-party laboratory, with a Children's Product Certificate issued on the basis of that testing.
That third-party requirement is a real advantage over the EU's self-declaration route for toys. Anyone claiming European rules are uniformly stricter should sit with this one.
What it does not mean
US enforcement is largely post-market: the CPSC acts on products already on shelves rather than clearing them beforehand. A CPSIA certificate also covers a narrower chemical scope than the EU's REACH restrictions, and the CPSC does not hold a public register you can look a product up in, so you're generally relying on the manufacturer to produce the certificate.
Read it yourself: the standard as published ↗
Brands citing this standard
Each row links to the source backing that brand's claim, and says how we checked it. A brand appears here only when its claim cites something.
- Green Toys US children's product, so CPSIA third-party testing applies.
- Naturepedic Children's product sold in the US.