Prop 65 for Importers: Who Must Warn, Safe Harbor Labels and 60-Day Notices

Proposition 65 is a California law, but it reaches every importer whose goods are sold to California consumers, including through a national retailer or a marketplace. California Health and Safety Code section 25249.6 prohibits a business from knowingly and intentionally exposing anyone to a listed chemical that causes cancer or reproductive toxicity without a clear and reasonable warning, and the regulations place that duty first on the manufacturer, producer, packager, importer, supplier or distributor, not on the store. For prop 65 for importers, the question is rarely whether the law applies. It is whether your company is the party that has to warn, what the warning must say after the 2025 short-form changes, and what evidence you hold if a 60-day notice arrives.

Prop 65 is not a customs requirement. CBP does not check warnings at entry and no ACE data element covers it. The exposure happens after release, when the product reaches a California buyer, which is why many importers learn about it from a retailer’s vendor manual or a notice of violation instead of from their broker. This guide covers the decision points for consumer goods, promotional products, drinkware, outdoor gear and cosmetics importers, using the regulation text in Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations as amended through 2025.

Who Is Responsible Under Prop 65: Manufacturer, Importer, Distributor or Retailer

Two statutory limits come first. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees are not a “person in the course of doing business” and are outside the law (HSC 25249.11(b)). And an exposure that occurs less than 12 months after a chemical is listed does not require a warning (HSC 25249.10(b)). An importer with 10 or more employees selling into California is inside the scope, even if the foreign factory is much larger and the importer never handles the goods.

27 CCR 25600.2 then allocates the warning along the supply chain. The manufacturer, producer, packager, importer, supplier or distributor complies in one of two ways: by putting a compliant warning on the product label or labeling, or by sending written notice and the warning materials to the authorized agent of the business it sells to or of the retail seller. The retailer is responsible only in defined cases, listed in 25600.2(e).

• The retailer sells the product under its own brand or a brand licensed to it or an affiliate.
• The retailer knowingly introduced the chemical into the product or caused it to be created.
• The retailer covered, obscured or altered a warning label the supplier applied.
• The retailer received the notice and warning materials and sold the product without displaying them.
• The retailer has actual knowledge of the exposure and no upstream party is a business of 10 or more employees with an agent for service of process or a place of business in California.

What this means for a foreign supplier and a US importer

The last case is the one that pulls importers in. A retailer facing a notice will look upstream for a party with a California presence, and the US importer of record is usually that party, because the foreign manufacturer has none. If the importer chooses the written-notice route instead of labeling, 25600.2(b) and (c) require the notice to identify the product (a UPC works), include every warning material needed, including internet warning text, obtain a written or electronic confirmation of receipt, and be renewed every year the product is sold in California. A change in the chemical named or the endpoint triggers a new notice within 90 days. Parties can also allocate responsibility in a written contract under 25600.2(i), which overrides the default rules as long as the consumer still gets a compliant warning. Private label programs for retail and consumer goods logistics clients should settle that allocation in the vendor agreement before the first purchase order.

Safe Harbor Warnings: Short-Form, Full and Online

A warning is presumed clear and reasonable when it follows the safe harbor methods (27 CCR 25602) and content (25603). Every safe harbor warning names at least one listed chemical for each endpoint it covers (25601(b)), uses the yellow triangle with a black exclamation point (black and white is allowed when the label is not printed in yellow), and starts with “WARNING:”, “CA WARNING:” or “CALIFORNIA WARNING:” in bold capitals. The full warning reads, for a carcinogen: “This product can expose you to chemicals including [name of one or more chemicals], which is [are] known to the State of California to cause cancer. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.”

The short-form label warning changed on January 1, 2025. Under the amended 25603(b), a short form must now name a chemical, using one of the approved sentences such as “Cancer risk from exposure to [name of chemical]. See www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.” or “Can expose you to [name of chemical], a reproductive toxicant. See www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.” Its type can never be smaller than 6-point (25602(a)(4)).

The January 1, 2028 transition

Products manufactured and labeled before January 1, 2028 may keep the old short form, such as “WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm — www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.”, regardless of when they are sold (25603(c)). For an importer, the operative date is the factory’s labeling date, so packaging artwork for production runs that finish in late 2027 should already carry the new chemical-specific wording. Inventory labeled earlier can sell through without relabeling.

Online, catalog and foreign-language warnings

For internet sales, 25602(b) requires the warning on the product display page, through a clearly marked hyperlink using the word “WARNING”, “CA WARNING” or “CALIFORNIA WARNING”, or otherwise prominently before the purchase is completed. A warning the buyer has to search for does not count. The short-form text may be reused online when the label uses it. Catalog sales need the warning next to the item. And if the label carries consumer information in another language, the warning must also appear in that language (25602(d)), which matters for bilingual packaging produced for the US and Latin American markets on the same run.

Lead, Phthalates, BPA and Cadmium in Imported Goods

A short list of chemicals accounts for many consumer product warnings on imported goods: lead in brass fittings, PVC, ceramic glazes, paints and solder; phthalates such as DEHP and DINP as plasticizers in vinyl, cords, grips and inflatables; bisphenol A in polycarbonate and some can and lid linings; cadmium in pigments, coatings and some metal alloys. Whether a warning is legally required depends on the exposure, not on the presence of the chemical, and the law places the burden of proving that an exposure is below the threshold on the defendant (HSC 25249.10(c)).

OEHHA has published safe harbor numbers for many listed chemicals: a no significant risk level (NSRL) for carcinogens and a maximum allowable dose level (MADL) for reproductive toxicants. An exposure below them does not need a warning. The table lists the current values for the chemicals importers meet most often, from 27 CCR 25705 and 25805.

Why a lab result alone does not settle it

Safe harbor levels are doses, in micrograms per day, not concentrations in the product. Converting a test result into an exposure requires a use scenario: how often the drinkware is used, how long a grip is held, whether a child mouths the item. Two importers with the same lab report can reach different conclusions, so the documented exposure assessment matters as much as the report. For children’s products, federal CPSIA lead and phthalate limits apply separately and are covered in our guide to the children’s product certificate; meeting them does not by itself remove a Prop 65 warning obligation. Cosmetics shipments handled through cosmetics and chemical logistics programs face a third layer, federal facility registration and product listing under MoCRA requirements.

Testing and Supplier Documentation an Importer Should Hold

Because the importer carries the burden of proof, the file has to exist before the product ships. The regulations do not prescribe a document set, but the defense in HSC 25249.10(c) and the notice rules in 25600.2 point to the records that matter.

• Material disclosure by component: resins, plasticizers, coatings, alloys and glazes for every part a consumer touches, signed by the supplier and tied to the bill of materials.
• Test reports for the chemicals that disclosure flags, run on production samples, with the lab method stated so an exposure assessment can be built on them.
• An exposure assessment, or a documented decision to warn, for each SKU sold in California.
• Artwork approval showing the warning text, symbol, type size and placement on the final label, plus the online warning text for product pages.
• Copies of any 25600.2 notices sent to customers, their confirmations of receipt and annual renewals.
• The vendor agreement clause that allocates Prop 65 responsibility, and the supplier’s warranty and indemnity for chemical content.

Where the customs file helps

The entry record ties the importer to each lot: invoice, packing list, HTS line, country of origin and manufacturer identification. When a notice names a product sold two years ago, that record is how an importer identifies the factory, the shipment and the test report that covered it. Keeping compliance documents in the same trade compliance management file as the entry, rather than in a sourcing inbox, shortens the response.

How 60-Day Notices Lead to Settlements

Prop 65 is enforced by the Attorney General, district attorneys and certain city attorneys, and by private parties acting in the public interest. A private enforcer may sue only after serving a 60-day notice of the alleged violation on the business and the public prosecutors, and only if no public prosecutor is diligently prosecuting the same violation within that period (HSC 25249.7(d)(1)). For a failure-to-warn claim, the notice must include a certificate of merit executed by the noticing party’s attorney. The civil penalty is up to $2,500 per day for each violation (25249.7(b)(1)), so exposure in a long-selling SKU accumulates quickly.

The 60 days are the importer’s window. A retailer that receives a notice is not deemed to have actual knowledge of the exposure until five business days after receipt (25600.2(f)(2)), and will ask its supplier for the manufacturer and importer names, which it must provide to the enforcer on written request (25600.2(g)). A practical response sequence: identify the exact products and lots the notice describes; pull the test reports and the exposure assessment; confirm whether a compliant warning was on the label or provided under 25600.2(b); decide whether to reformulate, warn or contest; and involve counsel early, since a settlement can also bind future sales and warning language.

Duty on Common Prop 65 Product Lines

Warnings and testing add cost per unit, and so do tariffs. The table below shows the duty on product lines that frequently carry Prop 65 warnings, from China and Vietnam. Several of them, including vacuum drinkware and ceramic mugs, are on China’s List 4B, which is suspended, so only the Section 301 forced labor tariffs apply on top of MFN. Run the exact 10-digit line through the China to US tariff calculator or the Vietnam to US tariff calculator before quoting a landed price. AD/CVD and exclusions are not included.

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