Documents, compliance and liability
Business licence, export rights, confidentiality, and where responsibility sits if a document turns out to be wrong.
Documents, compliance & liability
Q19Will you keep my information confidential?
Yes. I can sign your NDA, or send you mine. Standard terms I work under:
- Your supplier list, specs, prices and product plans stay confidential
- I will not contact your existing suppliers without your written approval
- I will not use your project as a public case study unless you approve the wording
If you need me to work under your company's NDA template, send it — I will review and sign.
Q20Can you guarantee the supplier will not cheat me?
No, and nobody honest can.
But "no guarantee" is not the same as "no protection". Here is exactly what I do, in order:
| # | What I do | How |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who is actually contracting | The three entities that must be the same company: the one that signs your contract and stamps it, the one whose bank account receives your deposit, and the one that runs the production line. I compare the registered Chinese legal name, the unified social credit code, the registered address and the company chop — and I report every place they disagree. |
| 2 | What the registration does and does not prove | I do read the business scope — but as one input, not a verdict. A scope that lists only sales and wholesale is a flag worth checking — it is not proof. Since China's 2021 business-scope registration reform, what is registered and what a company can actually do are two different things. A court has held that a bidder who added "manufacturing" to its scope on the day of the bid still had manufacturing capability. Registered address, social-insurance headcount, equipment ownership and production records are cross-checked against each other instead. |
| 3 | Document cross-check | Certificate numbers verified at the issuing body; test reports checked for sample name, date and standard; system certificates checked for validity and scope — not just the PDF. |
| 4 | Document vs. reality | Is the material in the test report the material they are quoting you? This is where most "surprises" are caught before money moves. |
| 5 | On-site check (where I can get there) | Production floor, incoming material area, whether the machines are actually running, inspection room, calibration labels, batch records, finished goods warehouse. |
| 5b | Change notification | Nothing gets substituted quietly. Any change of material, process, or sub-supplier must be approved in writing before production — a verbal "same as last time" does not count, and the obligation extends to their own suppliers. |
| 6 | Payment milestones | Deposit against the proforma invoice; balance tied to QC passing — no pass, no balance. |
| 7 | Bring in a third party for big orders | For larger runs I will tell you plainly when to spend the money on a formal accredited inspection instead of relying on me. |
| 8 | Put it in writing | Every quotation, promise and spec change stays in writing — so "that is what we agreed" is never a debate. |
Two limits I want to be explicit about:
- Any remote check has limits. I can confirm documents and public records. I cannot see inside a production run from a desk.
- I am not a certification body, a testing lab, or a lawyer. I find gaps; I do not issue certificates or give legal opinions.
If someone tells you they can guarantee a supplier 100% from behind a desk, that is a sales line, not a professional answer.
Q21What if the supplier turns out to be bad — who is liable?
I am not liable for the supplier's performance, and I say that up front. My deliverable is information: what I found, what I verified, and what I could not.
Every report includes a clear statement of:
- What was checked and how
- What could not be verified
- What the report is not (not a certification, not a legal opinion, not a guarantee of future performance)
If you need contractual protection, that sits between you and the factory — and I will tell you when a clause is worth pushing for.
Q43Which documents do I actually need — and how does that change for the US, the EU and the UK?
The list is different per market, and the responsibility for most of it is yours, not your factory's. This is the working version I use.
EU, food-contact packaging:
- A declaration of compliance for the finished article, meeting the content requirements of EU 10/2011 Annex IV — including NIAS disclosure, the intended food types, contact time and temperature, and the verified surface-area-to-volume ratio.
- Migration test evidence for the actual article, at your real conditions.
- Where relevant: the BPA restrictions under (EU) 2024/3190 — which apply to printing inks and adhesives as separate categories — and the PFAS limits for food-contact packaging.
- Packaging waste obligations sit with the producer in each member state where the packaging becomes waste.
UK: EPR registration and data reporting if you cross the thresholds; Plastic Packaging Tax if your plastic packaging components reach 10 tonnes and use less than 30% recycled content; plus the product rules that apply to the goods themselves.
US: no federal packaging EPR. At federal level the food-contact question is about authorised substances, plus a letter of guaranty; import documentation must identify the actual manufacturer; and state programmes exist (California, Colorado, Minnesota) with their own registration and reporting duties.
What I can't promise: I do not give legal opinions and I do not certify compliance. Two limits I state up front: I have not verified Amazon's requirements from Amazon's own documents, so I will not quote them as fact; and my depth is packaging and food-contact materials — not medical devices, electronics or toys. Where I don't know, I say so.
Q44Who is legally responsible for the DoC — me or the factory? Can my supplier sign it?
For food-contact materials in the EU, the answer is you — the importer, or the business placing the product on the market.
Ireland's food safety authority puts it plainly: if you import these food-contact materials into the EU, you are responsible for issuing a DoC for them. Finland's says every operator in the chain must provide a DoC to the next operator — manufacturer to importer, importer to distributor. France's DGCCRF line is the same: the guarantee comes from those responsible for placing the product on the EU market.
So what is a factory's DoC worth? It is real evidence about the material the factory supplied, and you need it. It does not discharge your own obligation, because what you place on the market is the finished printed and laminated article — and printing, laminating and bag-making change the material.
A DoC also has a shelf life. Finland's guidance says it must be updated at least every years, and must be updated when composition or purity changes in a way that affects the declaration, with a duty on the supplier to notify you. The French position allows up to five years provided nothing changes the inertness of the material. Recycled plastic declarations must be batch-specific.
What I can't promise: I do not sign or issue a DoC. I am not you, and I am not your EU responsible person — signing one would convert your legal obligation into my forgery risk. What I do is check the one you have against the required content, line by line, and tell you what is missing.
Q46Which missing document is most likely to stop my goods at customs?
From the cases and rules I have read, four candidates, in this order.
1. The Importer of Record record. If you buy on DDP terms and have never checked whose name, address, email and phone are on the importer record, that is your biggest exposure. Since 18 September 2026, US CBP can immediately void an IOR number when the information on CBP Form 5106 is inaccurate or incomplete. The physical address cannot be a registered agent, customs broker, freight forwarder, P.O. box or business service centre, or another person's address; the email and phone must belong to the IOR; and the broker's power of attorney must be executed directly with the IOR, not through a forwarder. The notice goes to the email on file — which may be the wrong one.
2. Wood packaging. Solid wood packing from China has its own US rule, and inaccurate documents can mean refusal of entry. On the import side into China, missing or absent IPPC marking attracts penalties — with a higher penalty band when there is no IPPC mark at all — while plywood, particle board, fibreboard and thin-board packing is exempt.
3. The DoC and test evidence for food-contact goods, including the EU rule requiring a declaration of compliance and laboratory reports to be sent 48 hours in advance for polyamide and melamine plastic kitchenware from China and Hong Kong, with a documentary check on all consignments.
4. Origin and value consistency. Invoice, certificate of origin, bill of lading and the destination entry have to tell one story — and the bill of lading in your hand may not be the set used for the export declaration.
What I can't promise: I am not a customs broker and I do not clear goods. I cannot tell you your shipment will not be examined, and I will not quote you a detection rate — no official examination-rate data is published. What I do is check that the facts on your documents are the same facts, before the goods move.
Q47Who is the Importer of Record on my entries — and whose address is on the form?
Ask this question before your next shipment, not after.
Under DDP, the seller arranges delivery through customs — and in practice that often means the importer of record is the supplier, or a forwarder acting for them, with the forwarder's contact details on the record.
Since 18 September 2026, US CBP's notice states that inaccurate information may result in immediate voiding of IOR numbers. The specifics are strict: the physical address must be the actual location of the business or individual, and cannot be a registered agent, customs broker, freight forwarder, P.O. box, business service centre or another person's address; the email must belong to the IOR, and third parties may not substitute their own; and customs brokers must execute the power of attorney directly with the IOR. The notice is sent to the email the IOR last submitted. CBP also flags that inaccurate or misleading information on Form 5106 is material to an obligation to pay money to the government.
Three questions for your broker: who is the IOR on my last five entries; if customs visited the address on my Form 5106, would they find my business operating there; and which mailbox will receive a notice like this.
What I can't promise: I am not a customs broker and I do not file entries. I will not tell you whether DDP is safe or unsafe — it depends entirely on the structure. And if you discover that a past declaration was inaccurate, my advice is not to correct it first: ask a customs lawyer in the destination country about the right order of steps, because a correction can itself create new exposure.
Q48What do I need to prepare for EPR, the UK Plastic Packaging Tax, and PFAS?
Three different things, three different triggers.
UK Plastic Packaging Tax. The rate is £228.82 per tonne from 1 April 2026, and you register if you manufacture or import 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in a 12-month period. A component is exempt where recycled content is at least 30% of the plastic in it. The burden of proof is on you, the taxpayer: all plastic is assumed to be virgin unless there is evidence otherwise. And from 1 April 2027, pre-consumer waste — factory offcuts and regrind — will no longer count as recycled plastic for this purpose. So "our film contains 30% recycled material" stops working as an answer.
UK EPR. Obligations depend on establishment, tonnage and turnover: no obligation below 25 tonnes; small producers register and report but do not pay disposal fees or buy PRNs; large producers pay disposal fees and must complete a recyclability assessment that rates packaging red, amber or green — which is what sets the fee. The published 2025 base rates include plastic at £423 per tonne and fibre-based composite at £461 per tonne. Missing information scores as red. The data you must report is per packaging component, per material, in kilograms — which most Chinese quotations do not contain.
PFAS. For food-contact packaging placed on the EU market, PPWR limits apply from 12 August 2026: total PFAS ≤ 50 ppm, individual PFAS ≤ 25 ppb, and the sum of PFAS ≤ 250 ppb, with a three-step screening and targeted-analysis method published by the Commission. Anti-grease papers, coatings and some inks are where the question lands — and many factories cannot answer it, because their ink is bought in.
What I can't promise: I do not file your EPR returns, I do not calculate your tax, and I do not sign anything on your behalf. Some of these figures are illustrative rather than final rates, and rates change annually — I will date every figure I give you. What I do is get the per-component material and weight data out of the factory, in a form your compliance provider can use.
Q49How do I check whether an ISO 9001 certificate is real, valid, and actually covers what I'm buying?
Three checks, in this order.
1. Is the certification body real, and still approved? Certificates can be withdrawn after they are issued. China's accreditation body has published a penalty revoking a certification body's approval and declaring a specific quality-management certificate it issued invalid. Status is a moving thing, not a fixed fact.
2. Is the certificate still valid, and what does its scope say? Check it in an official database — IAF CertSearch for management-system certificates, NANDO for EU notified bodies where CE is involved. Then read the scope against what you are buying, the process and the site. A valid certificate whose scope covers a different product, process or address has not answered your question.
3. Who is claiming what? ISO does not perform certification and does not issue certificates; a company cannot be certified by ISO. Certification is performed by external bodies. So "ISO certified" is never a statement about a batch of goods.
What I can't promise: I cannot certify a certificate, and I will not treat ISO 9001 as a quality guarantee — it is a system certificate, and it says nothing about whether any particular batch conforms. One buyer's public account describes exactly this pattern: certification bodies that were on the EU database but not approved for the directives required, or not on it at all, while the supplier insisted it had exported to Europe before.