By the Digital Empire Regulatory Research Team (EntryProof Analysis Team) · Published August 24, 2026 · Last updated August 24, 2026
Editorial policy at /editorial-policy.
The customs-broker channel is not really a "EntryProof competitor" in the way a rival SaaS is. For most small and mid-size importers, "my broker handles it" is the entire compliance department. The honest framing: brokers file what you hand them, disclaim the accuracy of what you handed them, and cannot sell the audit of their own work. EntryProof is the layer above — the independent second set of eyes that catches the CPSC certificate gap before the CF-28 does.
"The broker channel" is the licensed U.S. customs brokerage industry operating under 19 CFR Part 111. The largest tech-forward player is Flexport (founded 2013 in San Francisco by Ryan Petersen, approximately $2.3B raised, peak valuation around $8B) which bundles brokerage into freight and offers an integrated software platform. Traditional players include C.H. Robinson (founded 1905, publicly traded, over $17B in revenue), and European specialists such as KGH (acquired by Maersk in 2020). Collectively they file the entries. For SMB importers, one of these vendors typically *is* the compliance function.
It is not an independent audit function on importer-provided data. Standard broker engagement terms place the accuracy of classification and certificate data with the importer of record. Brokers offer classification advisory as billable services, but standing product-level audit of an importer's cross-broker, cross-channel entry stream (DTC entries via one broker, Amazon FBA via another, wholesale via a third) is not a broker's product line, because auditing the accuracy of importer-provided data is exactly the risk their terms disclaim. A single broker only sees the entries it filed, and none of the entries the importer's other brokers filed.
| Line item | Typical charge | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Per-entry filing fee | $100-250 per entry | Formal entries; higher for complex line counts |
| PGA line charge | $25-75 per PGA line | CPSC, FDA, USDA, EPA, etc., billed per participating government agency line |
| Continuous customs bond | $400-700/yr typical | Bond amount scales with duty/tax exposure; single-entry bonds are per-shipment |
| Disbursement / advance fee | 2-3% of duty amount | When broker fronts duty payment to CBP on the importer's behalf |
| Classification advisory | Hourly or per-item | Ad-hoc advisory outside standard filing scope |
| All-in for a 10-entry/mo importer | ~$1,500-3,000/mo | Industry-observed range; specific fees vary by broker |
| EntryProof | Free readiness check + paid tiers | Independent layer above the broker; does not file, does not replace the broker |
A broker transacts customs business on your behalf and files entries. EntryProof audits the data you are about to give a broker (or already gave a broker) against the CPSC eFiling requirements under 16 CFR Part 1110. One executes the filing; the other verifies its inputs. Neither replaces the other.
Every formal commercial entry into the United States requires a licensed customs broker as filer of record. That is legal reality, not preference. Any question that reduces to "who signs the CBP Form 3461" or "who transmits entry data to ACE" has exactly one answer: a licensed broker. Flexport, C.H. Robinson, or one of several dozen national brokers — the choice among brokers is real, but the choice between broker and no-broker is not a choice.
When the importer needs to know, before handing a shipment to their broker, whether the CPSC certificate coverage on the product line is complete — is there a valid Children's Product Certificate on file for each SKU in the entry, does the age-grading data match, is there a CPSC-accepted third-party lab record referenced correctly, is the manufacturer contact block filled in per 16 CFR Part 1110. That readiness question is upstream of the broker's filing. Errors here surface downstream as CBP CF-28 requests for information, CF-29 notices of action, and (in the worst cases) Section 15 penalty exposure.
An importer selling on Shopify DTC, Amazon (with Amazon as importer of record for some FBA lanes), wholesale, and TikTok Shop can easily have three or four different brokers filing on their behalf across those channels. No single broker sees the full entry stream, because each broker only files what it files. EntryProof sits above that fragmentation and reconciles across all channels — a single view of every CPSC-relevant entry and every certificate on file, regardless of which broker touched which shipment.
The 2025-26 tariff environment — Section 232 aluminum/steel derivative expansions, IEEPA-based country adjustments, rolling 301 modifications — has meaningfully increased entry complexity. Broker operations teams are working through a backlog; response times on non-urgent classification questions have visibly worsened per practitioner commentary on r/supplychain and importer forums. In that environment, an importer relying on the broker to catch every CPSC certificate gap in real time is trusting a system that is publicly acknowledged to be under stress. An independent readiness layer is not a critique of the broker; it is a hedge against the broker's own bandwidth.
This is a hypothetical scenario, not a real customer case. Consider a $5M/yr children's apparel importer using two brokers: one for containerized ocean freight from China, another for air-freighted small parcels via Vietnam. The importer maintains 40 SKUs, of which 35 are children's products requiring a CPC. A supplier substitutes a slightly different fabric on 8 SKUs in a spring production run. The importer's ocean broker files the entry with the existing CPC references, not knowing the fabric change invalidated the earlier third-party testing under CPSIA. Two months later a CBP CF-28 arrives requesting substantiation. EntryProof run on the pre-shipment packing list would have flagged the substrate change as needing a CPSIA re-test before the entry filed; the broker had no signal to catch it because the broker never sees the supplier substitution.
EntryProof is a data preparation and readiness-assessment tool for the CPSC Product Registry. EntryProof is NOT a customs broker, NOT a testing laboratory, and NOT a legal-advice service. Compliance decisions remain the responsibility of the importer. EntryProof does not guarantee that any classification, packet, or filing will be accepted by CPSC or CBP.
EntryProof is not affiliated with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Amazon, Shein, Temu, or TikTok Shop. Flexport, C.H. Robinson, and KGH/Maersk are the registered trademarks of their respective owners, referenced here in a nominative-fair-use capacity for the sole purpose of comparing product and service capabilities.
A licensed U.S. customs broker under 19 CFR Part 111 transacts customs business on behalf of the importer of record. That includes transmitting entry data (including CPSC Product Registry certificate references, where required under 16 CFR Part 1110) to CBP via the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). Practically, the broker files what the importer hands them — General Certificates of Conformity (GCC), Children's Product Certificates (CPC), age-grading data, and product identifiers. The broker is legally required for formal entries; the software that helps the importer prepare and audit what they hand the broker is optional.
Per-entry fees generally run $100-250 per entry, plus disbursement fees, single-entry or continuous customs bond fees, and per-PGA line charges (CPSC, FDA, USDA, etc.) commonly $25-75 per PGA line. A 10-entry/month importer typically pays $1,500-3,000/mo all-in to brokers without seeing a line item called "compliance verification" — brokers do not price a separate audit; they file what you give them.
No. EntryProof is not a licensed customs broker under 19 CFR Part 111, does not transact customs business, and does not file entries. A licensed broker is legally required to file formal entries for commercial importers. EntryProof is the readiness layer above the broker — it helps the importer verify that the certificates, product identifiers, and CPSIA-testing references they are about to hand the broker are complete and internally consistent before the broker files them.
Because for many SMB importers, the practical mental model is "my broker handles compliance" — full stop. The question EntryProof has to answer is not "which is better, a broker or software" (both are needed) but "does an audit layer above the broker pay for itself." For an importer whose broker has ever misclassified an HTS code, missed a CPSC certificate linkage, or filed against stale rule data, the answer is typically yes; brokers disclaim liability for the accuracy of importer-provided data, and the CBP CF-28 or CF-29 lands on the importer, not the broker.
Under Section 15 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. § 2069), civil penalties for knowing violations can reach $120,000 per violation and up to $17.15 million for a related series of violations (current caps set by Federal Register notice 2021-26082, 86 FR 68244, effective Jan 1 2022; next statutory adjustment due Dec 1 2026). Separately, a held container due to a CPSC filing gap typically costs $500-5,000 per day of dwell time at port (industry-observed range, not an EntryProof guarantee).
The largest include Flexport (founded 2013, tech-forward brokerage bundled with freight, ~$2.3B raised), C.H. Robinson (founded 1905, publicly traded, $17B+ revenue, one of the largest U.S. brokers), and KGH acquired by Maersk in 2020 among the European specialists. The competitive picture is the entire licensed-broker industry, not a single named vendor.
They do not, as a matter of published product motion. Brokerage engagements typically include the filing itself and a limited scope of classification advisory time; standing audit of the importer's cross-broker, cross-channel entry stream — DTC vs Amazon FBA vs wholesale — is not a broker's product line, because auditing the accuracy of importer-provided data is exactly what the broker's standard terms disclaim.