Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman said the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is treating counterfeit safety marks as a trade-fraud concern, as cross-border online sales complicate product-safety enforcement.
At the 19th Annual International IP Crime Conference in Bangkok on Oct. 28, Feldman cited the agency’s 2025 figures: 542 recalls and product-safety warnings involving about 26 million products. CPSC also sent nearly 90,000 takedown notices to third-party sellers, he said.
Feldman said online commerce can divide a product’s path across borders while the seller has little presence in the United States. Counterfeit marks may mislead consumers and disadvantage companies that pay for legitimate testing, he said. “The counterfeit mark does not make the product safe,” Feldman said.
Federal law bars selling, offering for sale, distributing or importing a consumer product bearing a registered safety certification mark owned by an accredited conformity assessment body when the person knew or should have known the mark was used without its owner’s permission. In May, CPSC asked for public input on how common counterfeit marks are, their safety risks and their effects on consumers and businesses. The comment period ended July 6. The agency said it would review submissions before deciding whether to take further action, but gave no date for a decision.
Feldman also cited cases involving failures to report product hazards. Former Gree USA Inc. executives Simon Chu and Charley Loh received prison sentences of 38 and 40 months, respectively, in June 2025 after a jury convicted them of conspiring to defraud CPSC and failing to provide required information. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) described the case as the first criminal prosecution of corporate executives for failing to report under the Consumer Product Safety Act. CPSC’s 2017 recall notice cited about 450 fires and more than $19 million in property damage. A 2023 warning said four deaths might be associated with recalled units.
Royal Sovereign International Inc. was sentenced April 28, 2026, to an $8 million criminal fine and $395,786 in restitution for failing to report hazards involving portable air conditioners, DOJ said. The company imported and sold more than 33,000 units made in China from 2008 to 2014. DOJ described the units’ links to more than 40 fires and one death as alleged.
The DOJ and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established a Trade Fraud Task Force in August 2025 to pursue customs and import violations. DOJ lists forged product-safety certificates among trade-fraud methods. Since July 8, importers of covered consumer products subject to CPSC certification rules have had to file compliance-certificate data electronically before the goods enter U.S. commerce. CPSC says the filing rule adds no testing or certification obligations. Additional eFiling requirements for certain products entering from Foreign Trade Zones take effect Jan. 8, 2027.
