In short: A product can pass every test and still be stopped by a label. I'm not a customs broker — the legal call belongs to yours. What I do before a deposit goes out is check four things: whose name is on the label, the country of origin, the FCC ID against the test report, and the battery warning.
A product can pass every test and still get held up by a label.
It's the last thing buyers check and the first thing customs reads. And unlike most of the sourcing process, you can't fix it after the goods ship — by then it's printed on every box.
Let me be clear about what this article is. I'm not a customs broker, and the legal call belongs to yours. What I can tell you is what I check before a deposit goes out — and what I ask the factory for.
Four things I confirm every time
These aren't "the rules." They're the questions I don't skip, because these are the four places I've seen buyers get caught.
Whose name goes on the label.
This is the one I ask first, because it's the one buyers most often assume is the factory's problem.
If you're importing, customs wants to know who's bringing the goods in — and that's usually not the factory. In a lot of cases it needs to be you, printed on the goods.
I don't give a legal opinion on this. I ask the factory, and I get you a straight answer about what they normally print — then you take that to your broker.
Country of origin.
It has to be there, and in most markets it has to be permanent. A sticker that falls off in transit doesn't count.
This one is almost never wrong. It's just worth seeing with your own eyes.
The mark for your region — and the number behind it.
CE if you're selling into the EU. On anything with wireless going to the US, an FCC ID — and the ID on the label has to be the same one that appears in the test report.
Different number, different product. I check this before a deposit, not after.
Battery warnings, if there's a battery.
Earbuds, power banks, most wearables. Lithium batteries are a regulated good, and the label usually has to carry the warning and the transport marking.
If a factory hands you a label with no battery warning on a lithium product, that's the moment to slow down.
Where it goes wrong
Three failures I see most often:
The label gets designed last. It's handled after the packaging is finalized, when changing anything costs money. Then the missing piece turns up, and the box mould is already cut.
The label is copied from someone else's product. It looks right. It was right — for their product, in their market, some years ago.
Nobody actually reads it. The factory prints what you approved. If you approved it by not looking, that's still an approval.
The check that saves the shipment
Ask for the label file before you pay a deposit.
Not a photo of a prototype — the actual artwork file, the one going to print. Then sit with it and go through your own questions. Mine above are a starting list, not the whole list.
If the factory can't produce the label file on request, that tells you something. A factory that prints labels for export has this file ready.
One that doesn't will send you a photo and hope you stop asking.
The honest part
Most buyers spend weeks on the sample and five minutes on the label.
The sample tells you whether the product is good. The label tells you whether the product can be brought in where you're selling it.
Both are your responsibility, not the factory's. The factory prints what you approved.
And the part that isn't mine to answer — the legal requirements for your specific market and product — belongs to your broker. Ask them early, not after the goods are on the water.
I'll ask the factory the questions. Your broker answers the ones that need a license.
Want a second pair of eyes on a label file before it goes to print? Message me on WhatsApp — the button is on every page.
— Damon, Founder
