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As the cross-border e-commerce industry enters a stage of fierce competition and under the law of "survival of the fittest" elimination, cross-border sellers who can remain invincible for a long time are often either able to adjust to the rules in a timely manner or have truly strong strength. Now that April is coming to an end, in addition to frequently adjusting FBA and commission fees, Amazon has also introduced new regulations that are no less stringent, which to a certain extent has put more demands on the platform's sellers.
It is learned that recently, Amazon US released a new requirement regarding "consumer products containing button batteries or coin batteries". According to the new requirements, from now on, all sellers who sell consumer products containing button batteries or coin batteries must provide valid compliance documents to ensure compliance with relevant regulations, otherwise the corresponding products will be banned by Amazon . The specific provisions are as follows: 1. Compliance documents that need to be submitted Safety instructions and user manuals for button cells and coin cells, and consumer products containing button cells or coin cells; Certification of compliance with Underwriters Laboratories 4200A (UL4200A) provided by an ISO17025 approved laboratory; General Certificate of Conformity per UL4200A.
Individual button cells and coin cells that are usually oblate and have a diameter of 5 to 25 mm and a height of 1 to 6 mm; Consumer products containing button or coin-cell batteries include, but are not limited to, calculators, cameras, flameless candles, glitter clothing, shoes, holiday decorations, key chains, flashlights, musical greeting cards, remote controls, and clocks.
It is understood that due to the small size of button batteries and coin batteries, they have been widely used in various microelectronic products. Therefore, the new requirements for imposing restrictions on them involve a wide range of products and soon attracted attention from the industry. Some sellers believe that this is the same as the CPC certification for toys. It is actually a normal compliance audit. The certification is not difficult. You only need to submit compliance documents as required and a report that meets Amazon standards .
Another group of sellers said that for sellers selling related products, the key to this new requirement is not the subsequent certification, but how to deal with the inventory that has not been sold out . If all of it needs to be removed, the loss will be huge. Here, let me first take you to understand the basis for Amazon to issue this new requirement - the Reese Act .
It is learned that according to foreign media reports, button batteries or coin batteries are small in size and can be easily swallowed by children, causing serious consequences. According to statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), from 2011 to 2021, a total of 27 people died from ingesting or inserting button batteries or coin batteries, and about 54,300 people were treated for injuries due to button battery or coin battery-related accidents. To protect children and other consumers from the risk of injury from ingesting button batteries or coin batteries, in August 2022, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission passed the Reese Act, stating that it would impose federal safety requirements on button batteries or coin batteries and consumer products containing such batteries. Recently, according to foreign media reports, the Reese Act officially came into effect on March 19, 2024. The Act imposes several requirements on button batteries, coin batteries, and consumer products containing button batteries or coin batteries: On the one hand, the Reese Act requires that the packaging of the products of the relevant sellers must comply with the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA) and affix warning labels on the packaging, battery compartment, and accompanying instructions and manuals; On the other hand, the Reese Act imposes a number of “performance requirements,” including that consumer products containing button cells or coin-cell batteries must secure such batteries within the product to minimize the risk of ingestion under reasonably foreseeable use or reasonably foreseeable misuse, among other requirements. According to feedback from multiple sellers, the requirements of this new law do coincide with the notice issued by Amazon. Recently, multiple sellers received compliance notices also indicating that Amazon is conducting strict reviews of consumer products containing button batteries or coin batteries.
According to reports, a large number of sellers on the US site have received relevant compliance notices in the background, and their listings have been marked, because the new requirements are "effective immediately". Amazon stated in the notice that if sellers do not submit valid compliance documents within the deadline, the listing may be removed. It is revealed that the deadlines for submitting documents for the marked listings are mostly between April and June . It is foreseeable that the listings with shorter deadlines and still have a large amount of inventory on sale will be greatly affected. Given that in February 2022, Amazon removed a large number of products containing 18650 lithium batteries from the shelves due to product safety issues, after receiving the compliance notice this time, many sellers selling button batteries or coin battery related products could not help but feel worried. But it is worth mentioning that, unlike the previous ban on the sale of lithium-ion 18650 battery products, the same product safety issue, the product injury risk of button batteries or coin batteries can be "prevented", so Amazon has only proposed "compliance requirements" for consumer products containing button batteries or coin batteries, rather than a "sale ban". A senior seller pointed out that sellers do not need to worry too much about this new requirement. According to feedback from service providers, the processing period of some documents is basically between 5 and 7 working days. Even if the listing is initially removed due to failure to submit documents before the deadline, normal sales can be resumed as long as valid compliance documents are submitted later. However, there is no doubt that Amazon has once again sent out a signal that it is stepping up its efforts to review product compliance . Last year, Amazon also issued compliance notices for a number of children's products (such as backpacks, baby sleeping bags, etc.), requiring sellers to provide multiple test certificates for related products. As a result, "a large number of products are shown as unsaleable" appeared on the BS list of some categories. Here, we would also like to remind all sellers that in order to avoid a significant impact on sales, they need to take timely action: If you sell consumer products containing button batteries or coin batteries , you need to prepare documents such as the GCC certificate, product packaging with barcodes, and UL 4200A experimental test reports approved by ISO17025 for timely submission. If the product you are selling does not contain button batteries or coin batteries, you need to check the listing and modify the relevant sensitive words. If the product is accidentally judged as a product that needs to submit compliance documents due to sensitive words, you also need to file a complaint with Amazon to indicate that the product does not contain button batteries or coin batteries.
Platform policies are constantly changing, and sellers have no choice but to comply with the changes.
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