22 October 2026: what changes for mail shipments
The postal route is the last one to come under the rule. The date is published; the procedure around it is still moving.
Updated 11 October 2026
What the texts say
CPSC will require eFiled certificates for mail shipments, via a Full or Reference Message Set, beginning on 22 October 2026.
Official text
CPSC will require eFiled certificates for mail shipments, via a Full or Reference Message Set, beginning on October 22, 2026.
— CPSC, retrieved 11 October 2026
Since 17 September 2026 La Poste has suspended these products on its consumer Colissimo offers, and names Colissimo Facilité and Chronopost Pro for professional senders who have completed the CPSC formalities.
Official text
nous devons suspendre momentanément l'expédition de ces produits spécifiques via les offres Colissimo grand public, à partir du 17 septembre 2026.
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026Des envois via Colissimo Facilité et Chronopost Pro sont possibles pour les expéditeurs professionnels ayant déjà fait la démarche auprès du CPSC.
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026les envois de ces produits sont possibles via Colissimo Facilité et les offres Chronopost Pro sur La Poste Pro Expéditions (LPPE).
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026
La Poste writes that every European postal operator has to adapt its declaration forms to the new US customs process.
Official text
toutes les postes européennes sont dans l'obligation d'adapter leurs formulaires de déclaration au nouveau process douanier américain.
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026
The list of products concerned is not closed: La Poste writes that it is not exhaustive and may change at any time.
Official text
Cette liste n'est pas exhaustive et susceptible d'évoluer à tout moment.
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026certains produits tels que les articles pour enfants, les jouets, les bijoux fantaisie, les produits électroniques, les vêtements et les articles de sport, font l'objet d'une déclaration renforcée, nécessitant un formulaire douanier spécifique et une pré-inscription obligatoire pour l'expéditeur de ces produits sur le site du CPSC
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026
La Poste mentions a penalty of up to $5,000 per non-compliant parcel.
Official text
soumis à une pénalité pouvant s'élever jusqu'à 5000$ par colis.
— La Poste, retrieved 11 October 2026
What the date actually is
22 October 2026 is not a second rule. It is the day the postal channel catches up with the rule that already applies to everything else: from then, mail shipments are expected to carry eFiled certificates, through one of the two message sets.
« CPSC will require eFiled certificates for mail shipments, via a Full or Reference Message Set, beginning on October 22, 2026. »Until now the postal route simply could not transmit that data - there was no entry record to attach it to. That is what changes, and it is why the date exists at all.
The change comes from the customs side rather than from the safety agency: a new entry process for mail creates the record that the safety data can be attached to. That is why the date is specific to parcels and why nothing about your certificate changes on it.
Which also means the date is not a deadline for you in the way sellers read it. Nothing about your obligations begins that morning; what begins is the ability of the postal channel to carry what the obligation already required.
Meanwhile, in France
The French consequence arrived earlier than the American date, which is what confuses the timeline. La Poste suspended the affected products on its consumer offers from 17 September 2026, and kept professional offers open under conditions.
« we have to temporarily suspend the shipping of these specific products through the consumer Colissimo offers, from 17 September 2026. »« Shipments via Colissimo Facilité and Chronopost Pro are possible for professional senders who have already completed the formalities with CPSC. »So the practical reading is the reverse of what the calendar suggests: a French seller is affected now, not in October, and the October date is when the channel they are waiting for starts working as intended.
What is worth doing before then
Everything that takes time and nothing that depends on the date. The certificate, the Registry entry and the annex are all useful whichever route you end up shipping by, and none of them becomes easier by waiting.
« register your products in the CPSC Product Registry now »It is also worth knowing what La Poste says the cost of a non-compliant parcel can be, because it is the number that makes people move.
If you sell a catalogue, do it in the order your orders arrive rather than alphabetically: the five references that carry most of your American sales, then the rest. A bestseller that cannot ship in October costs a season; an item sold twice a year can wait.
« subject to a penalty of up to $5,000 per parcel. »Is your product concerned?
Two minutes, no account.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do before that date?
Colissimo's advice to regular shippers is to register their products in the CPSC Product Registry now, which reduces each parcel to three identifiers.
My product is not regulated. Am I concerned?
The declaration still travels: CPSC provides Disclaim A for a product no rule requiring a certificate applies to, and the annex carries it with an intended use code.
Will this page be updated?
The pages we quote - CPSC, La Poste, Colissimo, French customs - are re-read automatically every day, and every quotation here carries the date it was last checked.
Sources
- CPSC, CPSC Guidance for Mail Shipments on Electronic Filing (eFiling) of Certificates of Compliance · retrieved 11 October 2026
- La Poste, Quelle est la nouvelle réglementation pour les envois vers les États-Unis ? · retrieved 11 October 2026
- La Poste, Quels sont les produits nécessitant une déclaration adaptée pour les États-Unis ? · retrieved 11 October 2026
- Colissimo Entreprise, Export vers les USA : les formalités douanières et réglementaires à anticiper · retrieved 11 October 2026
- CPSC, eFiling Citation, Testing Exclusion and Disclaim Guidance · retrieved 11 October 2026