Etsy Jewelry Labeling Requirements 2026: FTC Rules

A seller lists a stacking ring as "dainty 14k gold filled band, genuine moonstone, handmade". Three of those are defined terms in federal law she has never read. The ring is gold plated brass at about 1/60th by weight, the moonstone is a glass doublet, and the band was bought as a blank and polished. Any one is enough for a listing removal, and the FTC's Jewelry Guides define each to the micron.

Jewelry is one of Etsy's biggest categories and the one where the vocabulary that sells is the vocabulary that is regulated. "Sterling", "14K", "gold filled", "vermeil", "natural", "genuine", "lab grown", "handmade" and "1/2 carat" each carry a specific obligation, backed by the FTC Act rather than a marketplace policy. Meeting the Etsy jewelry labeling requirements costs almost nothing. Failing them costs the listing, and repeat findings cost the shop.

We read 16 CFR Part 23 in full from the current Code of Federal Regulations, pulled the National Stamping Act from the U.S. Code, checked the federal lead limits against 16 CFR 1303 and read California's jewelry statute section by section.

Etsy Jewelry Labeling Rules Start in Your Listing, Not on the Tag

Almost every guide for jewelry sellers treats the Jewelry Guides as a stamping standard, which drops the half that applies to you most.

16 CFR 23.0(c) says the guides apply to claims "included in labeling, advertising, promotional materials, and all other forms of marketing, whether asserted directly or by implication, through words, symbols, emblems, logos, illustrations, depictions, product brand names, or through any other means". 23.0(b) puts them on everyone "at every level of the trade", retailers included. An Etsy listing is advertising, tags are words, photos are depictions, and "GoldHausCo" is a product brand name.

So the question is not what you can stamp. It is which of your claims live where.

Claim	Where it has to appear	Rule
Metal fineness ("14K", "925")	Optional as a stamp; once stamped, governed. Once written in the listing, governed there too	16 CFR 23.3, 23.5, 23.10
Your name or trademark	On the article, but only if you stamped a quality mark on it	15 U.S.C. 297(b)
Plating type and ratio	Immediately before the metal word, equally conspicuous, wherever the word appears	16 CFR 23.3(b)(5)-(8)
Lab-grown or imitation stone	Immediately before the stone name, equally conspicuous	16 CFR 23.25(b)
Gemstone treatment	In the listing description, because the buyer never views the piece	Note to 16 CFR 23.24
Fractional carat weight	With a range disclosure, on every page where the fraction appears	16 CFR 23.18(d)
Rhodium surface layer	Disclosed whenever the piece is described as precious metal	16 CFR 23.7

Only one row there is about a stamp. The rest is text you type, which is why a shop with immaculate hallmarks can still be non-compliant, and why the fix is an editing job rather than a manufacturing one.

Every Gold Word and the Exact Thing It Promises

16 CFR 23.3 is the longest section in Part 23 and the one Etsy sellers break most, usually by inheriting a supplier's description. The words are not interchangeable and the differences are numeric.

Two rules run underneath all of them. The word "Gold" alone means fine 24 karat gold throughout, so any alloy needs a karat designation immediately preceding it and "of at least equal conspicuousness" (23.3(b)(2)). And a surface treatment must cover "all significant surfaces" with "reasonable durability", defined in footnote 25 as thick enough everywhere to give the coverage a reasonable consumer would expect.

Term	What it requires	Minimum karat	Citation
"14 Karat Gold", "14K"	Gold alloy throughout at that fineness. A hollow interior must be disclosed next to the word, and the piece cannot be called "solid"	n/a, stated	23.3(c)(1)
"Gold Filled"	Mechanically applied plating that is at least 1/20th of the weight of all metal in the article	10K	23.3(c)(2)
"Gold Plate", "Gold Overlay", "Rolled Gold Plate"	Mechanically applied plating that is at least 1/40th of the metal weight; with a lower ratio, the fraction itself must be stated ("1/40th 12 Kt. R.G.P.")	10K	23.3(c)(2)
"Gold Electroplate"	Electrolytic plating at least 0.175 microns thick, about 7 millionths of an inch, of fine gold equivalent	10K	23.3(c)(3)
"Heavy Gold Electroplate"	Electrolytic plating at least 2.5 microns thick, about 100 millionths of an inch	10K	23.3(c)(3)
"Vermeil"	A sterling silver base, gold coated on all significant surfaces, at least 2.5 microns thick	10K	23.4(b)
"Gold Washed", "Gold Flashed"	Below every threshold above. These are the honest words for a thin deposit, and Part 23 does not let you reach for a stronger one	n/a	23.3(b)(5)-(8)

Three traps sit in that table. The ratio words describe weight, so a heavy brass core makes the same gold layer fail a ratio it would pass on a lighter one. Vermeil requires sterling underneath, so "gold vermeil over brass" is a contradiction, and note 1 to 23.4 adds that a nickel barrier between the silver and the gold must itself be disclosed. 23.3(b)(7) names a third: gold plated, covered with nickel, then washed with gold again is legal to make, but the base metal layer has to be disclosed.

Sterling, 925, and the Tolerance You Do Not Get

Silver is simpler, and the sterling silver labeling requirements are where most handmade shops are already close to compliant. Three thresholds matter.

Claim	Minimum purity	Tolerance under the Stamping Act	Citation
"Sterling", "Sterling Silver", "Ster.", "solid silver"	925 parts per thousand	4 parts per thousand, or 10 if the tested part contains solder	23.5(b)(2)
"Coin", "coin silver"	900 parts per thousand	Same	23.5(b)(3)
Unqualified "silver"	Needs a fineness number immediately before it, equally conspicuous ("750 silver")	Same	23.5(b)(1)
"Silver plated", "silver coated"	No purity floor, but the coating must cover all significant surfaces durably	n/a	23.5(b)(4)-(5)

The trap is the bottom row. Note 1 to 23.5 quotes the National Stamping Act directly: silver plated articles shall not "be stamped, branded, engraved or imprinted with the word 'sterling' or the word 'coin'". A plated piece cannot borrow the word in any form, and that is statute rather than guidance.

The tolerance is the other thing sellers get backwards. Four parts per thousand is a real allowance, so 921 assays as compliant, but it rises to ten only for a part that contains solder, and a soldered bezel and a cast band on the same ring are tested as separate parts. That is the argument for sterling solder even where the joint is invisible.

Stamp a Quality Mark and You Owe a Name

This is the obligation almost no Etsy jewelry guide mentions, and it is triggered by the most common stamp in handmade silver.

16 CFR 23.10 defines a quality mark as any letter, figure, numeral, symbol, sign, word or term on a product indicating it is composed of, or plated with, a precious metal. "925", "14K", "Ster.", "vermeil" and "Plat." all qualify. Note 2 to 23.10 points at the National Stamping Act, and 15 U.S.C. 297(b) requires anyone applying such a mark to also apply "a trademark of such persons, which has been duly registered or applied for registration under the laws of the United States within thirty days after an article bearing the trademark is placed in commerce", or the name of such person.

So a ring stamped only "925" is short of the statute. Your shop name next to it clears it. A logo clears it only if the logo is a trademark you have registered or applied to register, and the thirty days runs from the article entering commerce, not from when you got to the paperwork.

Placement has two rules of its own. 23.10(a) wants the part identified where a mark covers only part of a piece. 23.10(b) bars making the metal word larger than its qualifier: the regulation's example is "gold" in large type with "electroplate" in small.

Lab-Grown, Simulated, and Why "Faux" Is Not a Disclosure

The gemstone sections are where search-optimised titles do the most damage, because the qualifier that makes a claim legal is the word a seller drops for character count.

16 CFR 23.25(b) is the construction to learn. A stone name may describe a laboratory-grown, created, synthetic, imitation or simulated stone only if it "is immediately preceded with equal conspicuousness" by "laboratory-grown", "laboratory-created", "[manufacturer name]-created", "imitation" or "simulated". Immediately preceded, equally conspicuous: a qualifier in the fourth paragraph of the description does not reach a title.

Three notes narrow it further. Note 1 to 23.25(b) states flatly that "faux" is not adequate disclosure. 23.27 bars "real", "genuine", "natural", "precious" and "semi-precious" for anything produced artificially. And 23.25(c) runs the rule backwards: nothing is a laboratory-grown version of a named stone unless it has essentially the same optical, physical and chemical properties, which rules out "lab created moissanite diamond".

What the listing says	Verdict	Compliant version
"Genuine moonstone ring" (glass doublet)	Fails 23.27 and 23.25(a)	"Simulated moonstone ring"
"Faux emerald studs"	Fails note 1 to 23.25(b)	"Imitation emerald studs"
"1ct diamond, lab grown (see description)"	Fails 23.25(b): not immediately preceding	"1.00 ct laboratory-grown diamond"
"Cultured sapphire"	Allowed only with a qualifier conveying it is not mined	"Cultured (laboratory-grown) sapphire"
"Treated ruby" for a lead-glass filled stone	Barred outright by 23.25(d)(2)	"Composite ruby", qualified for properties and special care
"Semi-precious CZ"	Fails 23.27	"Cubic zirconia"
"Diamond" for an unfaceted rough stone	Needs the 23.12(c)(1) wording	"Rough diamond"

One thing in the diamond section surprises people. 23.12(a), as restated in the 2018 revision, defines a diamond as "a mineral consisting essentially of pure carbon crystallized in the isometric system" with no reference to how it formed. A laboratory-grown stone is therefore a diamond, and the duty is to say which kind rather than avoid the word. 23.12(b) adds that an unqualified "diamond" also implies at least seventeen polished facets.

The Disclosures That Must Live in Your Listing Copy

Three obligations in Part 23 are addressed to text rather than metal, and one of them is written specifically for marketplaces.

Treatments. 16 CFR 23.24 requires disclosure of a gemstone treatment in three cases: it is not permanent, it creates special care requirements, or it significantly affects the stone's value. The note is the Etsy-specific part. Disclosure may normally wait for the point of sale, "except that where a product can be purchased without personally viewing the product (e.g., direct mail catalogs, online services, televised shopping programs), disclosure should be made in the solicitation for, or description of, the product". Dyed howlite, fracture-filled emerald, irradiated topaz and heat-treated amethyst each need their own line; "all gemstones may be treated" discloses none of them.

Weight. 23.18(b) bars "25 points" unless the decimal carat weight appears too, and 23.18(c) requires a stated decimal to be accurate to its last place. 23.18(d) is the one that bites a shop with a collection: a fractional claim such as "1/2 ct" needs a conspicuous disclosure that the weight is not exact plus a stated range, "conspicuously on every page where a fractional representation is made". Forty fractional-carat listings owe forty disclosures.

Mixed metals. 23.8 wants precious metals listed in descending order of weight. Its own examples of misleading descriptions are "Platinum + Silver" and "14K/Sterling" for pieces that are mostly silver; "900 platinum over silver" and "14k gold-accented silver" are the compliant forms.

"Handmade" Is a Defined Term, and Etsy Is Not Where It Is Defined

Every Etsy seller knows the marketplace has a handmade policy. Very few know the FTC has one, that it is stricter, and that both apply at once.

16 CFR 23.2(a) permits "handmade" or "hand-wrought" only where "the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods". The note defines raw materials as "bulk sheet, strip, wire, precious metal clays, ingots, casting grain, and similar items that have not been cut, shaped, or formed into jewelry parts, semi-finished parts, or blanks".

That decides the common cases. Sawing a pendant from sheet and filing it is handmade. Assembling purchased findings, a cast blank or a pre-made bezel cup is not, whatever the labour involved, because the shaping did not start from raw material. 23.2(b) applies the same test to "hand-forged", "hand-engraved", "hand-finished" and "hand-polished".

Etsy's own definition is looser, and a piece can satisfy Etsy's handmade policy while failing 23.2. The marketplace permits designing a piece and having it produced by a disclosed partner, which is the subject of Etsy's production partner rules. Nothing in 23.2 has a partner exception. The safe phrasing for assembled work is "handcrafted", "hand-assembled" or "made by hand in my studio", all of which describe the labour without claiming the FTC's term.

Children's Jewelry: Where the Guides Stop and Safety Law Starts

Part 23 governs what you say. A separate regime governs what the piece contains, and for jewelry aimed at children under 13 it is the stricter of the two.

A children's product is one designed or intended primarily for children 12 or younger. Under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, accessible components may not exceed 100 ppm total lead, and 16 CFR 1303 caps lead in paint and surface coatings at 0.009 percent, or 90 ppm, lowered from 0.06 percent on 14 August 2009. Both come with paperwork: third-party testing at a CPSC-accepted laboratory and a Children's Product Certificate issued by the manufacturer, who in a one-person Etsy shop is you.

Cadmium is where the picture gets misreported. There is no federal cadmium limit for children's jewelry: ASTM F2923 restricts cadmium and nickel, but the CPSC has not incorporated it by reference, so it is a voluntary standard buyers ask for rather than law. California is where cadmium becomes law, and its statute also reaches jewelry sold to adults.

Metal and product	Limit	Source
Lead, children's product component	100 ppm total	CPSIA 2008, federal
Lead, paint or surface coating	90 ppm (0.009%)	16 CFR 1303, federal
Lead, children's jewelry component	100 ppm (0.01%)	California HSC 25214.2(c)(1)(A)
Lead, children's jewelry surface coating	90 ppm (0.009%)	California HSC 25214.2(c)(1)(B)
Lead, adult jewelry, electroplated or unplated metal	500 ppm (0.05%)	California HSC 25214.2(a)
Lead, adult jewelry, plastic or rubber	200 ppm (0.02%)	California HSC 25214.2(a)
Cadmium, children's jewelry component	300 ppm (0.03%)	California HSC 25214.2(c)
Cadmium, children's jewelry surface coating	75 ppm soluble (0.0075%)	California HSC 25214.2(c)
Cadmium and nickel, children's jewelry	Restricted, voluntary standard	ASTM F2923, not incorporated by the CPSC

Two rows there matter to a shop that does not think of itself as a children's brand. The adult-jewelry caps apply to every piece shipped into California, and leaded brass is the usual source: it machines more easily, and a cheap plated brass charm can sit well above 500 ppm. The full federal picture for children's items, including tracking labels and small-batch registration, is in our guide to CPSIA rules for Etsy sellers.

What Etsy Actually Does About Any of This

Etsy checks none of it before you publish. Its Seller Policy puts compliance with all applicable laws, including required labels and warnings, on the seller. So enforcement arrives the way it always does on a marketplace: a listing comes down with a policy notice attached, usually after a buyer report or a competitor's flag, and repeat findings escalate to shop-level action.

A removal over a material claim is one of the easier cases to argue if the corrected copy is already live, which is the premise behind writing an Etsy appeal letter; if the listing has gone, why Etsy deactivated your listing maps the ladder. The origin half of a jewelry claim sits in Made in USA claims.

The whole remedy for a shop that has been listing on supplier copy for two years:

• Get the ratio in writing from your supplier. Weight fraction for mechanical plating, microns for electroplate. If they cannot say, you cannot write "gold filled".
• Put the qualifier in front of the noun. "Laboratory-grown sapphire", not "sapphire (lab)". Same for "simulated" and "imitation".
• Add one treatment line per listing that needs one. Name it, say whether it is permanent, give the care requirement.
• Add a name stamp beside your fineness stamp, or drop the fineness stamp and state it in the listing, which 297(b) does not reach.
• Swap "handmade" for "handcrafted" wherever you started from a blank or a finding.
• Check the brass if you ship to California and a plated component's lead content is unknown.

Related Reading

• Etsy clothing labels 2026: FTC fiber rules
• Etsy Made in USA claims 2026: FTC rules
• Etsy children's products 2026: CPSIA rules
• Etsy's handmade policy, explained
• The most common Etsy policy violations
• The complete guide to Etsy seller compliance

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to stamp my handmade jewelry at all?

No. Nothing requires a quality mark on jewelry. The obligation is conditional: apply one and 15 U.S.C. 297(b) requires your name or a registered or applied-for trademark alongside it, accurate within the National Stamping Act tolerances. Stating the metal in your listing instead carries the Part 23 accuracy duties without the stamping ones.

What is the difference between gold filled and gold plated on Etsy?

Weight. Both are mechanically applied layers of at least 10 karat gold under 16 CFR 23.3(c)(2), but gold filled needs the layer to be at least 1/20th of the weight of all the metal in the article, and gold plate or gold overlay at least 1/40th. Below 1/40th you must state the actual fraction, as in "1/60th 14 Kt. R.G.P.". Electroplating is measured in microns instead and cannot use either term.

Can I call a piece sterling silver if it is silver plated?

No, and this one is statute rather than guidance. Note 1 to 16 CFR 23.5 quotes the National Stamping Act: plated articles shall not be stamped, branded, engraved or imprinted with the word "sterling" or "coin". The word is unavailable to a plated piece in any form, including in a longer phrase such as "sterling silver plated".

How do I describe a lab-grown stone in an Etsy title?

Put the qualifier immediately before the stone name, in the same type size. 16 CFR 23.25(b) requires the name to be "immediately preceded with equal conspicuousness" by "laboratory-grown", "laboratory-created", "[manufacturer name]-created", "imitation" or "simulated". A qualifier in the description does not cure a bare stone name in the title, and note 1 to that paragraph rules that "faux" is not adequate disclosure.

Do I need to disclose that a gemstone was dyed or heated?

Yes, if the treatment is impermanent, creates special care requirements, or significantly affects value, under 16 CFR 23.24. For online selling the note to that section is the operative part: where the buyer cannot personally view the product, the disclosure belongs in the listing description rather than at a point of sale. Name the treatment, do not rely on a blanket line about gemstones in general.

Does the FTC definition of handmade match Etsy's?

No, and the FTC's is stricter. 16 CFR 23.2(a) allows "handmade" only where the entire shaping and forming from raw materials was done by hand and manually controlled methods, and its note excludes anything already cut or formed into parts, semi-finished parts or blanks. Etsy permits designed-and-produced work with a disclosed production partner. Assembled findings are better described as handcrafted or hand-assembled.

Do children's jewelry lead limits apply to an Etsy shop my size?

Yes. The CPSIA has no small-seller exemption: 100 ppm total lead in accessible components and 90 ppm in surface coatings under 16 CFR 1303 apply to anyone manufacturing a children's product, with third-party testing and a Children's Product Certificate. Small-batch registration with the CPSC relieves some testing, never the limits.

The Vocabulary Is the Compliance

There is no expensive step in this. One extra punch on a stamp, a word moved to the front of a title, a sentence about a treatment, a question put to a supplier in writing. Jewelry sellers get caught because the regulated terms are the terms that sell: "genuine", "solid gold", "sterling", "handmade", "1/2 carat". They read as description and they operate as claims.

Unflagged scans your listings for exactly that language: material and origin claims you may not be able to support, restricted signals, and trademark exposure. Run a free scan, or create an account for ongoing monitoring. Plans are on the pricing page.

General information about the federal and California rules published at 16 CFR Part 23, 15 U.S.C. 297 and California Health and Safety Code 25214.2., last revised in 2018 (FTC announcement). Not legal advice.