Yes, that's problematic both from a legal standpoint and from a practical standpoint - they will be questioned aggressively if the admitting CBP officer sees that they are carrying a product. But this still could work because the concerns and restrictions are less when a product is manufactured abroad. They can't be coming to the U.S. to make sales but they could be coming to the U.S. to deliver products made from abroad and already purchased.
I work with a company that imports and exports physical products to the U.S. regularly.
Yes, you could probably get away shipping a dozen phones a few times. But they will catch it eventually. They do actually inspect paperwork and sometimes contents.
And if they find out you've lied on the paperwork, you've earned yourself a shit list that's going to extend to any travel you do to/from the U.S. for life, on top of penalties and possibly arrest warrants.
They don't mess around.
I should add: CBP shares offices at the border with the couriers. They're literally down the hall from each other. They're inspecting packages crossing the border all day long, but it's a random sampling, so whether it's your day or not is a matter of luck. They also have mobile x Ray trucks that scan full semi trailers.
Yes, admission as a B-1 visitor would be appropriate where as here the product sold is manufactured outside the U.S. and the beneficiary of the sales is an entity outside the U.S.
I wouldn't count on it. As long as the product is available and marketed in other countries they can get caught in legal issues for not following those countries laws relating to marketing and offering of products.
A US company wouldn't be selling a CCL-restricted product to a foreign state without going through USG review -- or at least, they'd get to do that once, before DOJ comes in with the search warrants.
This is literally the point of customs. Otherwise, literally any product regulation would be toothless as foreign companies would simply sell us products that meet the requirements of their country, not the US. Since that does not happen at scale, it would seem that US customs does have some ability to enforce US regulations on foreign sellers.
It seems to me that the viability of this likely depends very heavily on people evading visa rules and/or customs duties.
Even if a good is legal in the country to which it is imported, its often not legal for someone without a particular license to bring it in except for personal use (that will return out of the country with them) or as a gift with restrictions on who the gift is for, etc.; it seems like this is an unlicensed commercial import/export arrangement -- or, put more directly, a smuggling arrangement (and, unless I'm mistaken, not the first of its kind that has been discussed on HN -- or maybe its the same one that has been discussed previously.)
The legal complications are in importing all the stuff, making sure you're not perceived as confusing/diluting someone else's brand name, complying with a different country's labeling requirements, and most of all obtaining the goods since Trader Joe's has the right to refuse to sell to "Pirate Joe's" shoppers.
One risk is if the item is perfectly legal and ordinary in the US but is illegal to import into the foreign country. The courier could wind up paying heavy fines or much worse.
Kinder eggs are an example of an item that is perfectly fine in, say, Canada, but carries a heavy fine for import into the US.
>Yes, manufacturing may happen overseas, but generally the product is still sold to the consumer by a locally based entity.
What about online sales that are shipped from overseas? Legislating against sellers isn't going to work well when the seller is on AliExpress and shipping in a small package from China.
Which could put the liability on the people who are importing/selling them.
Or, if it's literally end customers buying directly from foreign countries, caveat emptor and you should buy from somebody in a country with functioning consumer protection laws, in much the same as it is if you travel to abroad and bring some lead paint choking fire hazard back with you.
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