The international express delivery lacks the certification documents. Besides seizing the goods, what other penalty measures are there?

Many senders mistakenly believe that international express deliveries lack product certification documents. The worst outcome is that the goods may be detained by customs. Once the necessary certifications are completed, the goods can be released. However, in reality, the absence of certifications such as CE, FCC, FDA, IPPC, etc., not only leads to the detention of the goods but also triggers multiple chain penalties, including economic fines, qualification restrictions, and even product scrapping, with particularly high costs for commercial batch shipments.

The most common additional penalties are stepwise customs fines, which are far higher than the cost of obtaining the certifications. Each country's customs has clear penalty standards for unlicensed goods. The EU's ICS2 system can impose fines of 30% to 100% of the value for electronic products without CE certification; in the US, for communication products without FCC certification or cosmetics and food without FDA certification, a single fine can reach hundreds to thousands of US dollars. Domestic customs will impose fines ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 yuan on wooden packaging without IPPC labels or items without quarantine certifications, and the fines cannot be reduced and must be fully paid to handle the goods. Secondly, there is mandatory return and full cost self-bearing. For some goods that cannot obtain the certifications, the customs will directly reject the customs clearance application and require a return. Unlike ordinary returns, the return of unlicensed goods is considered an illegal return and cannot enjoy the regular logistics discounts. The round-trip freight, bilateral customs clearance fees, and detention storage fees are all borne by the sender. The overall cost is 2-3 times that of normal shipment. More importantly, after the returned goods are re-imported, they will also undergo a second inspection by the domestic customs, and in serious cases, they will be temporarily detained by the domestic customs, resulting in double penalties.

The overlooked hidden penalties are credit marking and regulatory upgrades. After a single violation of unlicensed customs clearance, the enterprise or individual entity of the sender will be marked as a high-risk object by the customs system. Subsequent package inspections will have a significant increase in the inspection rate, and regular manual strict inspections and secondary reviews will be triggered, significantly increasing the probability of delays and detention. Long-term violations by enterprises will lead to a downgrade in import and export credit, affecting customs declaration qualifications and cross-border trade permissions. In severe cases, they will be included in the customs supervision blacklist, restricting cross-border shipping permissions.

In extreme cases, the goods will be forcibly confiscated and destroyed. For goods that cannot obtain the certifications and fall under restricted access, the customs will directly issue a confiscation decision and destroy the goods on the spot. The sender cannot receive any compensation, and the value of the goods will suffer a total loss. Some infringing, unlicensed, and unqualified products will also be held accountable by the customs and incur additional legal costs. Therefore, preparing the corresponding certifications before shipment is the lowest cost way to avoid multiple penalties.