In a ruling dated Jan. 16, 2026, but only recently made public, U.S. Customs and Border Protection sets some guidelines for providers of automated importer services.
This ruling involves a foreign online platform that does not have an organizational customs broker license or a national permit that provides various services to potential importers for a fee. The ruling holds that the company is impermissibly conducting customs business by engaging in some of these activities.
Connecting Importers and Brokers
The platform connects importers, who upload shipping documents and provide entry, to third-party customs brokers, who make entry on behalf of the importers. CBP finds that this activity is permissible without a license because the company is not actively participating in deciding what information must be transmitted to a broker for entry purposes or the transmission of such documents and data to CBP. At the same time, CBP notes that the company may not act as an intermediary between an importer and broker in the formation or execution of a power of attorney and that that the company’s chat function raises confidentiality concerns.
OCR Tool
The company enables importers to utilize an optical character recognition tool that scans uploaded shipping documents and identifies information that will be utilized to make entry and can pre-fill that data into an entry document. However, the ruling states, 19 USC 1641(a)(2) explicitly defines “customs business” to include the preparation of documents or forms in any format, or parts thereof, that are ultimately intended to be filed with CBP, and the agency has thus consistently held that an unlicensed entity is precluded from inputting entry data into a filing that will be transmitted to CBP.
Classification Tool
Importers can input information for specific articles (e.g., product name, material, and end-use) into an artificial intelligence classification tool that then generates suggested HTSUS subheadings. The number of potential suggestions is tied to the specificity and sufficiency of the information given.
CBP holds that customs business is not being conducted if this tool only derives potential subheadings to the six-digit level; i.e., if it provides general classification information disconnected from an actual or intended importation requiring entry. However, if the tool is providing subheadings at the eight- or ten-digit level to customers that have engaged a third-party broker to make entry through the company’s platform, it is impermissibly directing customers and brokers on how to prepare the requisite entry documents.
Importer ID Forms
The company has also certified and submitted CBP Form 5106 (create/update importer identity form) on behalf of several new importers. The ruling states that this constitutes customs business, because it is the preparation of a document or form intended to be filed with CBP in furtherance of making entry, that only a licensed customs broker may engage in on behalf of another party.
Other
CBP also finds that the company may be violating (1) 19 CFR 111.36(b) if the fee paid to it by an importer seeking to engage a third-party broker is tied to the entry filed by the broker and (2) 19 CFR 111.3(a) because it is conducting customs business outside the customs territory of the U.S.
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