What is a GCC certificate? (General Certificate of Conformity)

A consumer product that isn't a children's product, when a CPSC safety rule applies to it. The GCC names each rule and states that the product meets it.

Only general-use products that a CPSC safety rule covers. CPSC keeps a list of those rules, dated August 8, 2024, with 39 entries. In plain words, they cover:

Beds and furniture: mattresses and mattress pads, adult bed rails, bunk beds, and dressers and other clothing storage units.

Clothing and textiles: clothing, carpets and rugs, and vinyl plastic film. CPSC doesn't enforce the GCC for adult clothing that's exempt from flammability testing.

Bikes, outdoors and pools: bicycles, bike helmets, ATVs, walk-behind lawn mowers, pool slides, pool and spa drain covers, and dive sticks.

Fire and fuel: lighters, matchbooks, fireworks, gas cans, metal-core candlewicks, and fake fireplace embers.

Child-resistant packaging: for some medicines, cosmetics and home chemicals, and for liquid nicotine.

Batteries and magnets: products with button or coin batteries, the batteries' packaging, and small, strong magnets.

Home and building: safety glass in doors and shower or tub enclosures, garage door openers, cellulose insulation, drywall, fridge doors, patching compounds, paint (its lead limit), and refuse bins.

Also on the list: CB radio antennas, toy and look-alike guns, and lawn darts, which CPSC bans outright.

A product on the list that's made for children 12 or under takes a CPC instead. A product none of these rules covers needs no GCC, though other agencies, like the FCC or FDA, can still apply.

No. A GCC is the certificate; "GCC certificate" is just how people search for it. There's nothing extra to get.

No template is required. CPSC's GCC page shows two examples, a mattress and aspirin packaging, but they're older than the current rule.

Since July 8, 2026, a GCC needs seven items: the product, with at least one ID such as a UPC, model number or SKU; each safety rule, listed separately; the certifier's name, street address, email and phone; the same details for whoever keeps the test records; the month, year and place it was made, with the maker's details; the latest date and place of testing, and who tested it; and the certifier's statement that it complies and is true.

It has to be in English, and a paper or PDF GCC prints that statement in the rule's own words. For most imports, the same data also goes in electronically with the customs entry.

Testing, or a reasonable testing program. Unlike a children's product, a general-use product doesn't need a CPSC-accepted lab: your own testing, or a lab CPSC hasn't accepted, can support a GCC.

The importer, for goods made overseas; the U.S. maker, for goods made here. That party is responsible even when a lab or consultant helps write it. CPSC doesn't issue GCCs.

Yes. The CPSIA is the law behind it, so people search for a "CPSIA general conformity certificate" or a "consumer product safety commission general conformity certificate". It's the same one document.