Restricted and prohibited items: how to check
Three lists, not one, and the categories that catch sellers out.
Every guide to prohibited items publishes a list. Almost every one of those lists is wrong somewhere, because there is no single list to publish.
Three separate authorities can refuse your parcel, and they do not agree with each other. Checking one and assuming the others match is how sellers end up with a returned box and no refund on the postage.
The three lists
1. Your carrier
Royal Mail, USPS, DHL and every other operator publishes its own restrictions. These derive partly from transport safety rules, particularly for air freight, and partly from commercial policy.
Two carriers in the same country will differ. An item one accepts by road may be refused by another that flies everything.
2. The destination country
Customs and the importing country’s own law. This is where you find bans on particular foods, plant and animal material, cosmetics with specific ingredients, and items that are legal where you are and not where you are sending.
This list is the one people forget, because it is not on the carrier’s website.
3. Your own country’s export rules
Usually the least restrictive of the three for a small seller, but not always. Cultural goods, certain technologies and anything with a dual-use classification have export controls regardless of who is carrying them.
A parcel needs to satisfy all three. The strictest one wins.
Categories that catch small sellers
Not a list of banned items, because that would be the mistake described above. These are the categories where sellers are most often surprised.
Lithium batteries. In a device, packed with a device, or loose: three different rule sets, in increasing order of strictness. A power bank, wireless earbuds and a watch with a coin cell are all covered, and loose cells are refused by most postal operators outright.
Liquids, creams and anything pressurised. Perfume and nail polish are flammable and treated as such. Aerosols are usually banned from air mail entirely. Cosmetics may also hit ingredient restrictions at the destination.
Food. Frequently restricted, and the rules are specific rather than general. Honey, dairy, meat and fresh produce are commonly refused. Sealed dry goods are often fine. Both country and carrier matter.
Plant material. Seeds, dried flowers, wooden items and even packing material can trigger phytosanitary rules. Countries with fragile ecosystems, Australia and New Zealand notably, are strict about this.
Anything alcoholic. Almost always restricted, often licensed, and refused by most postal services.
Second-hand items. Some countries restrict used goods, particularly clothing and electronics.
Replicas and branded goods. Counterfeits are seized. Genuine branded goods can also be blocked where distribution rights are enforced at the border.
How to check properly
- Start with the destination country. Its customs authority publishes import restrictions. This is the list most likely to catch you and the one least likely to appear in a carrier’s summary.
- Then check your carrier’s prohibited list, for both the service and the destination. Air and surface differ.
- Check the packaging too. Some restrictions apply to how an item is packed, not just what it is. Batteries in particular have packing rules.
- When in doubt, ask the carrier before you post it, not after it is returned.
For postal shipments, the Universal Postal Union publishes what each member country prohibits, which is a reasonable starting point for the destination half. Carrier restrictions are only ever on the carrier’s own site.
Why we do not publish a list here
Restrictions change, sometimes at short notice and sometimes seasonally. A list frozen into a web page ages badly, and an out-of-date restriction list is worse than none: it gives false confidence about the specific thing you most need to be right about.
The honest answer is that this needs checking per shipment against current sources, and that the sources are the destination’s customs authority and your carrier, not a third-party summary.
If it is refused
The parcel comes back, usually with a marking naming the reason. Resending it unchanged produces the same outcome.
If it was a packing problem, repack it. If the item itself is restricted for that destination, look for a carrier that accepts it, or tell the customer it cannot be sent and refund. See the returned parcels guide for reading the markings.
What this site does
Labelbench prints handling marks and a customs declaration. It has no way of knowing what is inside your parcel and makes no attempt to guess whether the contents are permitted.
That check is yours, against the destination and the carrier, before the parcel leaves.