What US customers need to know about CPSC safety requirements and buying Vintage Furniture from EVE
Important update – September 2026
Please be aware that new US import procedures are currently being introduced for certain categories of products, and these changes may temporarily affect shipping times and available postal services to the United States and Puerto Rico.
La Poste has advised us that, from 17 September 2026, shipments containing certain products subject to US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) requirements will be temporarily suspended through some standard Colissimo purchasing routes while new customs and compliance systems are being implemented. The affected categories include, among others, children’s products, toys, certain jewellery, electronics, clothing, sporting goods and certain household and furniture products. The list is not exhaustive and may change as the US authorities and postal operators implement the new procedures.
For EVE customers, this means that some US-bound orders may take longer to dispatch while these new systems are being put into operation. This is a change in the shipping and customs process rather than a blanket ban on sending vintage furniture to the United States. We will continue to assess each item individually for applicable CPSC requirements and will use the appropriate shipping and customs process available to us. Where additional information or documentation is required, we will deal with this before dispatch.
We appreciate your patience while these new procedures are introduced. We will update this page as further information becomes available. If your parcel is facing delays we will contact you to see if you wish to hold your order or cancel your order.
Further information
For the latest information, please consult these links:
La Poste — Products requiring a specific declaration for the United States
La Poste — New regulations for shipments to the United States
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — eFiling
If you are buying a vintage or antique piece from European Vintage Emporium and having it shipped to the United States, you may have noticed that US consumer-product safety requirements have become more visible in recent years.
La Poste — Products requiring a specific declaration for the United States
La Poste — New regulations for shipments to the United States
You may have heard about the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and, more recently, new electronic filing requirements for imported consumer products.
So what does this mean when you buy an old French table, cabinet, chair or other vintage piece from us?
The short answer is: don’t panic.
The rules do not mean that every vintage item needs modern laboratory testing or a CPSC certificate.
Instead, certain types of furniture and certain safety issues have specific requirements. We check our US-bound items carefully so that we can identify those requirements before an item leaves EVE.
What is the CPSC?
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the US federal agency responsible for protecting consumers from unreasonable risks associated with consumer products.
It has safety rules covering many different products, including certain types of furniture.
CPSC also provides specific guidance for businesses that resell used and vintage products. Resellers are expected to check products for recalls and to avoid selling furniture that is broken, unstable or otherwise presents a known safety hazard. The US rules are very similiar to those that apply to us in Europe.
Does every piece of vintage furniture need a CPSC certificate?
No.
This is probably the most important thing to understand.
The fact that a piece of furniture is being imported into the United States does not automatically mean that it needs to be tested or accompanied by a new CPSC certificate.
CPSC’s current guidance makes an important distinction between products that are subject to a particular safety rule and used products made before that rule took effect.
For example, CPSC states that a used product manufactured before the effective date of an applicable CPSC rule does not require a certificate simply because it is being imported commercially.
So an antique French table made many decades ago is not automatically treated like a newly manufactured table simply because it is travelling to America in 2026.
What matters is the item itself, its age, its construction, its intended use and the particular CPSC rules that may apply.
What do we check at EVE?
Before we approve furniture for US export, we consider several things.
1. What is the item?
We identify what the piece actually is and how it was intended to be used.
A small occasional table is obviously different from a children’s chair, a dresser or an upholstered armchair.
2. How old is it?
We record the known or estimated age of the item wherever possible.
We look at things such as:
- maker’s marks;
- labels;
- construction methods;
- materials;
- provenance;
- design;
- original documentation;
- and other evidence of age.
We do not invent an exact date when the evidence only supports an approximate period.
3. Is it safe and structurally sound?
We inspect furniture for obvious problems such as:
- serious structural damage;
- instability;
- broken components;
- dangerous sharp edges;
- damaged glass;
- unsafe modifications;
- or other obvious hazards.
CPSC specifically recommends that resellers do not sell broken, cracked or unstable furniture.
4. Has it been recalled?
We check the CPSC recall information before approving a US-bound item.
If an item is identified as a recalled product, we do not sell it for shipment to the United States.
CPSC states that selling, offering to sell or distributing recalled products is illegal.
What about old paint?
This is one of the areas where age can actually be important.
Certain movable furniture with paint or other surface coatings falls under the federal lead-in-paint requirements.
CPSC specifically identifies furniture such as tables, chairs, bookcases, chests and dressers among the products covered by its lead-paint regulation. CPSC also notes that furniture produced before 1978 is more likely to contain lead-paint hazards.
That does not mean that every old painted piece of furniture is automatically prohibited from sale in America.
Instead, we consider the age and circumstances of the individual piece and whether a particular CPSC requirement applies.
Where an item requires further investigation, we place it on hold rather than simply sending it on its way. If further investigation reveals any risk we will contact you and cancel the sale.
What about dressers and chests of drawers?
The United States has a mandatory safety standard for certain clothing storage units, including qualifying dressers, chests of drawers, wardrobes and similar furniture.
The standard is found in 16 CFR Part 1261 and applies to clothing-storage units manufactured after September 1, 2023.
This is another reason why we record the age of vintage furniture.
A centuries-old French chest is not suddenly a newly manufactured 2026 chest simply because it is being imported today.
However, if a piece falls into a regulated category, we investigate its status before approving it for export.
What about upholstered furniture?
Upholstered furniture receives additional attention.
US federal requirements under 16 CFR Part 1640 apply to covered upholstered furniture manufactured, imported or reupholstered on or after June 25, 2021. The rules incorporate the TB 117-2013 flammability test requirements.
There is an especially important point for vintage furniture:
Antique furniture that has been reupholstered for sale can be covered by these requirements.
So if we have an antique chair that has recently been reupholstered for sale, we cannot simply say:
“It’s antique, so the modern rules don’t matter.”
We investigate the upholstery history and applicable requirements before the item is approved.
Where the upholstered-furniture rules apply, CPSC requires the appropriate permanent compliance label and as a result this item cannot be sent to the US as it is not financially viable to acquire a certificate for a single piece of vintage furniture. In this instance we will contact you and cancel the sale.
What about children’s furniture?
Children’s furniture is treated differently from ordinary adult furniture.
Products designed or intended primarily for children can have additional requirements, including testing, certification and tracking requirements.
CPSC states that children’s products subject to applicable safety rules must be tested by a CPSC-accepted third-party laboratory and may require a Children’s Product Certificate.
For this reason, we do not treat children’s furniture as ordinary vintage furniture.
Items intended specifically for children, and particularly infant or nursery products, receive additional scrutiny and may require specialist review before we will consider exporting them to the US. In most cases we will not be able to send you the item and will contact you and cancel the sale.
What changed in July 2026?
You may have heard about the new CPSC eFiling requirements.
From July 8, 2026, importers of regulated consumer products generally have to electronically submit certificate information to US Customs and Border Protection through the CPSC’s electronic filing system.
This sounds more dramatic than it is.
The new eFiling system did not create a new universal testing requirement for vintage furniture.
CPSC itself describes the change as a modernisation of how existing compliance information is transmitted.
Where a product genuinely requires certification, the relevant importer and customs arrangements determine what information must be supplied.
For older used products manufactured before the effective date of an applicable CPSC rule, CPSC says that a certificate is not required solely because the product is being imported, and eFiling does not apply on that basis.
What does EVE actually do?
We have introduced our own EVE US Export Compliance Record for furniture and other potentially affected household items.
Each US-bound item can be screened individually.
Our process includes:
Identify
We establish what the item is, its intended use and its approximate age.
↓
Inspect
We check its physical condition and look for obvious safety problems.
↓
Check
We consider the CPSC rules that may apply to that particular item.
↓
Recall check
We check relevant CPSC recall information.
↓
Review
Where a particular rule may apply, we investigate the requirements rather than making assumptions.
↓
Decide
Every item receives one of three internal classifications:
GREEN — APPROVED
No unresolved CPSC issue has been identified.
The item can proceed to US export.
AMBER — HOLD
Something requires further investigation or clarification.
The item does not ship until the question has been resolved.
RED — DO NOT EXPORT
The item is recalled, unsafe, non-compliant or otherwise unsuitable for US export.
We do not ship it to the United States.
Why do we do this?
Because vintage furniture is different from buying a new item from a large American retailer.
Every piece we sell is an individual object with its own:
- history;
- age;
- materials;
- construction;
- previous repairs;
- finishes;
- upholstery;
- and condition.
We believe that deserves an individual assessment.
We would rather spend a little more time checking an item before it leaves Normandy than have a customer discover a problem after it arrives in the United States.
Does this mean buying vintage from EVE is complicated?
No. That’s our job, not yours.
You do not need to become an expert in US consumer-product legislation before buying a French antique.
Our responsibility is to identify potential issues and deal with them before we ship.
If an item requires additional information, documentation or specialist review, we will deal with that before approving it for US export.
If an item cannot reasonably be exported in compliance with the applicable requirements, we simply won’t send it.
One final thing to remember
US CPSC requirements are about product safety and compliance.
They are separate from other aspects of importing a vintage item into the United States, such as:
- customs procedures;
- duties and tariffs;
- import taxes;
- shipping charges;
- brokerage fees;
- state-specific requirements;
- or other requirements that may apply to a particular shipment.
Those matters can depend on the item, its value, its destination and the circumstances of the import.
We therefore recommend that US customers also check their own import and delivery arrangements before purchasing but tariffs are generally included in product and postage prices. Get in touch if you have any concerns.
Our promise to US customers
We love the fact that our vintage pieces continue their stories in homes around the world.
America has always been an important destination for EVE, and we want to keep sending beautiful European vintage pieces across the Atlantic.
Our approach is simple:
We don’t assume. We check.
We don’t ignore a problem. We investigate it.
And if an item isn’t suitable for US export, we don’t ship it.
European Vintage Emporium
From Normandy to new homes around the world.
This page provides general information about EVE’s approach to US consumer-product safety requirements. It is not legal advice and does not replace the requirements of US Customs, the CPSC, or applicable federal or state authorities.
Official information
For customers who would like to learn more, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission provides current information about imported products, furniture, recalls, upholstered furniture, clothing-storage units and certification requirements.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission
US CPSC — eFiling
US CPSC — Furniture reseller guidance