16 CFR 1303: Lead Paint Ban, Exemptions, and Penalties

The lead paint ban in 16 CFR 1303 prohibits paint and surface coatings that contain more than 90 parts per million of lead, along with any consumer product bearing such a coating. The Consumer Product Safety Commission enforces it under the Consumer Product Safety Act, and any product that exceeds the limit is a banned hazardous product that cannot be manufactured, imported, or sold in the United States.¹ The strongest protections apply to children’s products and household furniture.

What the Rule Covers

Three categories of products fall under the ban: paint and surface coatings sold to consumers, toys and other articles designed for children, and consumer furniture such as beds, tables, dressers, and bookcases when they carry a lead-containing coating.¹

“Paint and similar surface-coating materials” means any fluid or semi-fluid material that dries into a solid film on a surface, whether that surface is wood, metal, plastic, leather, paper, stone, or cloth. Some things that resemble coatings are excluded because they become part of the product rather than sitting on top of it: printing inks, pigment mixed into plastic during manufacturing, electroplating, and ceramic glazing all fall outside the definition of paint.¹

The 90 ppm Limit

The maximum allowable lead concentration is 0.009 percent by weight, or 90 ppm. Any coating above that threshold is classified as lead-containing paint and cannot legally appear on a regulated product.² Lead content is measured as lead metal in either the dried paint film or the nonvolatile content of the liquid paint, with the dried-film measurement carrying the most practical weight because it reflects what a child could actually contact. The 90 ppm limit took effect on August 14, 2009 under Section 101(f) of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.¹

One boundary worth flagging: 16 CFR 1303 governs paint only. A separate CPSIA rule limits total lead in any accessible component of a children’s product to 100 ppm, regardless of whether the lead is in paint, metal, plastic, or another material.³ A children’s product can clear the 90 ppm paint test and still fail the 100 ppm substrate limit, so manufacturers need to comply with both.

Exemptions

The regulation exempts two groups of products, either because consumer exposure is minimal or because the product serves a specialized industrial use.

Conditional Exemptions with Warning Labels

These products can contain lead-based paint if they carry the required labeling:

Industrial and commercial building maintenance coatings, traffic markings, and safety markings
Agricultural and industrial equipment refinish coatings
Graphic art coatings used exclusively on billboards, road signs, and industrial identification markings
Touchup coatings for agricultural equipment, lawn and garden equipment, and appliances
Catalyzed coatings marketed solely for radio-controlled model aircraft

The label must show the signal word “Warning” on the main panel along with the statement “Contains Lead. Dried Film of This Paint May Be Harmful If Eaten or Chewed,” and it must instruct users not to apply the product to toys, children’s articles, furniture, or interior surfaces of any dwelling or facility where children may be present.¹

Unconditional Exemptions

A smaller group is fully exempt with no labeling required:

Mirror backing paint on mirrors that are part of furniture
Artists’ paints and related materials
Factory-applied coatings on metal furniture, except metal children’s furniture, which remains covered

Testing and Certification

Every manufacturer, importer, and private labeler of a covered product must verify compliance before selling. Children’s products require testing at a CPSC-accepted, accredited third-party laboratory to confirm the coating falls below 90 ppm. After testing, the responsible party issues a certificate: a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) for children’s products, or a General Certificate of Compliance (GCC) for other covered items like consumer furniture. The certificate must specifically reference 16 CFR 1303 as one of the rules the product has been tested against.⁴

Resellers, Thrift Stores, and Refurbishers

The ban reaches anyone who sells consumer products, not just manufacturers. Thrift stores, consignment shops, charities, and people running yard sales or flea market booths cannot knowingly sell any children’s product or painted furniture that violates the lead limits.⁵ The CPSC does not require resellers to test secondhand inventory, but older painted children’s furniture and toys are the highest-risk items in secondhand markets.

Refinishing or “upcycling” a product turns the seller into a manufacturer in the CPSC’s eyes. Repainting a children’s dresser and selling it triggers the same third-party testing and certification obligations that apply to a factory producing new goods.⁵

Imports

Importers carry the same obligations as domestic manufacturers: testing at a CPSC-accepted lab, a certificate of compliance, and every shipment under 90 ppm. The CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance works with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to screen incoming products, and CPSC investigators are stationed at ports of entry.⁶ Products that fail inspection can be detained, refused entry, or seized.

Reporting a Violation

If a manufacturer, importer, distributor, or retailer learns that a product may violate the lead paint ban, federal law requires an immediate report to the CPSC.⁷ The agency reads “immediately” as within 24 hours of receiving information that reasonably suggests noncompliance. A company can run an internal investigation, but it should not take longer than 10 working days; after that, the CPSC presumes the company has had enough time to gather all reasonably available information.⁸

Penalties

The CPSC can order public notifications, mandatory recalls, and substantial financial penalties for products that violate the ban.

Civil Penalties

The statutory base for civil penalties is up to $100,000 per knowing violation and up to $15,000,000 for a related series of violations.⁹ These amounts are adjusted for inflation, and the most recently published adjusted maximums are $120,000 per violation and $17,150,000 for a related series.¹⁰ Each non-compliant product in a shipment can count as a separate violation, so a single import container of painted toys can generate millions in exposure very quickly.

Criminal Penalties

A knowing and willful violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act is punishable by up to five years of imprisonment, a fine, or both, and courts can order forfeiture of assets connected to the violation.¹¹ Criminal referrals are reserved for the most egregious cases, typically those involving deliberate concealment of known lead contamination or repeated disregard of warnings.

1
eCFR. 16 CFR Part 1303 – Ban of Lead-Containing Paint and Certain Consumer Products Bearing Lead-Containing Paint
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Lead in Paint
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Total Lead Content
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Rules Requiring Third-Party Testing and a Children’s Product Certificate
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Resellers Guide to Selling Safer Products
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Import Surveillance
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 2064 – Substantial Product Hazards
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Duty to Report to CPSC – Rights and Responsibilities of Businesses
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 2069 – Civil Penalties
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Consumer Product Safety Commission. Consumer Product Safety Commission – Civil Penalties Notice of Adjusted Maximum Amounts
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 2070 – Criminal Penalties