Reach Testing for Jewellery Sellers

#61

Ok I got another response and for me it’s great news;

"The jewelry made out of gold, platinum or silver 925 don’t need the certificate, but the procedure concerns jewelry made out of copper.

Note that sending all the required documents in one message will enable us to priorities your application accordingly."

Most of my products are silver not copper and so if I don’t manage to get hold of copper certificates, this is not the end of the world for me. Phew! But hopefully my large British bullion supplier will sort me out with a certificate.

#62

Ok, as I haven’t had a response to my email from said large British bullion supplier I just phoned them, as confirmed by Laura _Gems they were very helpful and said they would email their REACH conformity documents over to me.

Thank goodness I have been using a reputable supplier.

#63

I don’t understand why they’re concerned about copper? The items of mine they’ve flagged are stainless steel, which doing a quick search can contain other elements like copper.

#64

Perhaps REACH has found that copper is one of the biggest culprits for containing illegal levels of chemicals and that silver rarely or never does?

#65

Just to confirm (I’m a bit overwhelmed with all this and confused!) if I get a letter signed by my supplier to state their jewellery confirms to reach article no blah blah then amazon should accept this?

Does my supplier need to list every single article or just a general letter?

Any help much appreciated

#66

Ok another update. I send my REACH document to Amazon and got this response;

"A list of the ASINs has to be an integral part of the document. "

I make handmade jewellery using metals that have been REACH tested and have supplied the document evidencing this, but Amazon are stating that this is not enough, my actual finished product must be included in the REACH document. My items are made from REACH tested metals and nothing more, and thus Amazon are saying they will not trust the word of hand made sellers about what materials they use in their hand made products.

It will mean the end of selling at Amazon for many sellers who hand make products from metals that Amazon have deemed must have a testing certificate - for the final product, not just for the components.

Most small sellers cannot afford to REACH test their every single product made by hand, and so a lot of Amazon Handmade sellers will be shutting shop.

So far Amazon have told me that this only applies to copper, however I expect there is a chance they will extend this to other metals and this makes me not want to invest any more time or energy in listing new jewellery products on a marketplace that may remove my products on the basis of them not being REACH tested.

Contrôle ASIN et demande de renseignements impossibles à fournir pour des bijoux fantaisie
#67

Read my update Katy, I’ve sent my REACH document, it’s not enough, they want a REACH document for your finished hand made item.

#68

Thanks Taylor_Two I think you will have helped a lot of sellers with your information.

I also have stainless steel jewellery that is NOT hand made and have had reach requests so am wondering if a declaration of confirmity would do in this circumstance. Or perhaps my manufacturer needs to complete the confirmity listing each product concerned… Just not really sure what to do and I have 24 hours left!

I’m assuming Amazon block the listings from the 10th but if I send relevant info after this date they’ll reinstate the listings. But as my items are FBA they will also be disposed of after 30 days if I don’t supply the documents (or remove them) before then.

A reminder that we all have the Amazon gun to our heads and things can change in the blink of an eye. These manufacturing laws have been around for years - but the request for paperwork from Amazon was just 9 days notice (with 315 items to get the info for) which is simply not possible in that timescale.

#69

It is my personal feeling that Amazon are putting themselves into a position where they are only willing to sell items sold direct by manufacturers who can provide a certificate for each product.

Small sellers using products or components from larger manufacturers will not be able to get their suppliers to create documents for them for specific product listings or to insert those ASINS into the documents(?!) No manufacturer or supplier is going to be willing to do that, and while we could do that ourselves, surely that is fraud.

From the manufacturers perspective, they just lost a lot of sales as those sellers will no longer be buying from them or will be buying less (having lost one of their sales outlets), and the manufacturer will now have to rely picking up the slack with their own direct sales. In effect they’re losing their wholesale purchasers, which is a big deal for all these manufacturers.

#70

I just made an enquiry regarding REACH testing from one place in the UK, just to see what sort of price this testing would cost, as I had no idea, so I thought I’d share the info here for anyone else.

To test for nickel, lead and cadmium two of the same item need to be submitted (1 for the nickel test, and 1 for the combined lead and cadmium test), so for one of a kind sellers REACH testing the final item is not even possible.

The actual cost will vary by item as they gave me figures for up to so many components, so it depends on how many different parts make up the item as to the total cost. But it’s looking like a minimum of £150+ for the REACH testing of a final product (plus the cost of the 2 copies of the items concerned) per ASIN. Some of my items I reckon would cost nearer £200-£250 to get tested.

So if you have an item that’s a really great seller it might be worth pursuing REACH testing (assuming Amazon don’t accept anything else), but I can’t see that this is viable for most handmade sellers.

#71

I use stainless steel components in my jewellery and for the first load of ASINs I sent in to Amazon, which used stainless steel earring posts, a general stainless steel declaration from the manufacturer was acceptable, together with my proof of purchase invoice. Still waiting on about 6 other loads of ASINs tho, maybe I was lucky with that one…

#72

Oh Amazon, so now you’re being inconsistent in your decisions? I’ve now had to respond questioning why they accept this from you, but not from myself and asking if they want to see invoices.

Sighhhhhh

#73

“Selling a dress with a metal zipper? Surely this should be flagged?
Selling mobile phones? That’s metal next to the skin, surely they should all be flagged?
Selling pens? Again, metal next to the skin. Are these flagged too Amazon?”

Brilliant! a point well made :):heart_eyes: and to add to this did you know that most UK coins (legal tender) apparently contain more nickel than is permitted in “skin touching” items. Thats it folks! make sure you wear your PPE when you use UK coinage to pay for your next expresso LOL

#74

:joy: Exactly! I get that jewellery is on the skin for longer, but I do hope they are pulling up every single item with a zip on it yano.

#75

So… I contact seller support for advice on my ASINs that are 100% aluminium. All I got back (after 2 days of opening the case!) Was a generic email with a list of jewellery requirements for selling on Amazon and at the bottom - ready to to get approval to sell on A!!! When I look at the email address it looks like they forwarded to merchant services thinking I wanted to list on main Amazon. I even sent a link to the Help article as I thought they wouldn’t have a clue but they clearly didn’t bother reading my email properly.

I give up tbh - so many different responses - getting self certification accepted, some managing to get REACH documentation from suppliers (well done!) and accepted and others being told that each article has to be tested. For costume jewellery sellers this is ridiculous - using multi components from a plethora of suppliers for a £10 necklace?? And surely as soon as you change supplier this must invalidate any testing (and many of us have had supply issues during the pandemic)

How come all the resellers of Wish and Alibaba jewellery on main Amazon can get away with it but hand-crafted is being put through the ringer? I fully understand that we should comply with EU regs but we all choose to use reputable suppliers that we (rightly or wrongly) believe their findings meet all requirements.

I’m justgonna sit back and see how this sh*t show plays out…see if my listing disappear today…

#76

Well hopefully those sellers are also being put through the ringer. I’d expect half of Amazon to disappear today to be honest.

I watch on with interest and will look at who remains.

#77

I’ve also been contacted by Amazon for REACH documentation - weirdly only for about 8 of 1500+ listings - and when I check what they are, 50% don’t even come up in my inventory??? The others have been on there for an age so how on earth an I supposed to comply with the documentation?
Any advice please?

#78

Has anyone had any progress? Anything happened yet with the listings that you’ve not provided certification for?

#79

Nothing seems to have changed so far. Have you been approved for any?

#80

I’m pretty much in the same boat as you