The ABCs of the Lacey Act

A subject on all importers’ minds these days is the tariffs recently imposed by the Trump administration. However, importers should not lose sight of their other legal obligations when importing consumer products or other products that include wood or other plant material. For example, if you are importing a product containing wood or other plant material, one question that must be asked is whether you are complying with the Lacey Act.

What is the Lacey Act? We’re glad you asked! Without further ado, we introduce the ABCs of the Lacey Act to provide a brief overview of the law and importers’ obligations under it:

APHIS: The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) enforces the Lacey Act, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Background: The Lacey Act prohibits importing, exporting, transporting, selling, receiving, acquiring, or purchasing wood and other plant products that were taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any state, federal, Indian tribal, or foreign law.¹ It is also unlawful under the Lacey Act to make or submit “any false record, account, or label for, or any false identification of, any … plant” that is imported, exported, transported, sold, purchased, or received from any foreign country, or is transported in interstate or foreign commerce.² Criminal violations of the Lacey Act can be either a misdemeanor or a felony.

CITES: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international treaty designed to “regulate international trade in wildlife and plants,” including any parts, products, and derivatives of protected species.³ CITES imposes certain trade restrictions onto covered at-risk species to promote “international trade in wild animals and plants [that] is legal, sustainable and traceable, and does not threaten the survival of the species in the wild.”⁴ CITES is one of the frameworks most frequently implicated when considering an importer’s Lacey Act obligations, and a violation of CITES could be the predicate offense leading to a violation of the Lacey Act.

Declaration: Importers must file a Lacey Act declaration (the PPQ Form 505) that provides information on the imported plant material if the imported product or shipment  (1) contains plant material, (2) is classified under an APHIS-listed Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code, (3) is imported as a formal entry, and (4) falls under a covered entry code.⁵

Exemptions: There are certain exemptions that may apply to a shipment of wood or plant material and would not require filing a Lacey Act declaration, including if the product is hand-carried in personal baggage, arrives via international mail, is imported as an informal entry, will not remain in the United States, is a scientific specimen for lab or field research purposes only, is a common cultivar or common food crop, will remain planted or will be planted or replanted, or the plant material represents no more than 5% of the total weight of the individual product unit.⁶

Forfeiture: While state-of-mind comes into play for determining whether a Lacey Act violation is a misdemeanor or felony, strict liability applies to the Lacey Act’s civil forfeiture provisions. If wood or a plant product has been brought into the United States illegally in violation of Lacey Act requirements, it may be seized, regardless of whether or not the person in possession of the product knew of its illegal nature.⁷ The instrumentalities of the crime, such as vehicles used during the transport of the material, may also be subject to criminal forfeiture and seizure.⁸

Gibson Guitar: In a 2012 settlement, the DOJ accused Gibson Guitar Corp. (Gibson Guitar) of purchasing fingerboard blanks made from Madagascar ebony. The harvest and export of unfinished ebony from Madagascar was banned in 2006. According to the press release,⁹ a Gibson Guitar employee was informed of the law and that the fingerboard blanks were illegal to export under Madagascar law upon a visit to the Madagascar factory in 2008. Despite the employee informing his superiors of the Madagascan export restriction, Gibson Guitar purportedly did not take any action related to the ebony wood and continued to import it through 2009. The agreement deferred prosecution for criminal Lacey Act violations and required Gibson Guitar to pay a $300,000 penalty and a $50,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation “to promote the conservation, identification, and propagation of protected tree species used in the musical instrument industry and the forests where those species are found.”¹⁰ Gibson Guitar also implemented a compliance program.

HTS Code: Lacey Act declarations are required for all plant product HTS codes that are not 100% composite materials.¹¹ A list of the covered codes is available on APHIS’ website.

Informal Entry: Products imported as an informal entry are exempt from the Lacey Act’s declaration requirements. Informal entries generally are valued at less than $2,500 and do not require a bond.¹² Formal entries, conversely, typically have an aggregate value of at least $2,500 and are covered by a bond. These entries require a Lacey Act declaration, assuming the other conditions necessitating a declaration are met.

Department of Justice: The Environment and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ is responsible for criminal prosecutions of Lacey Act violations.

Knowing: Importers that knowingly import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase a covered wood or plant product in violation of the Lacey Act may be charged with a felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine ($500,000 for companies) or twice the gross gain or loss.¹³

Lumber Liquidators: In a 2015 settlement, DOJ accused Lumber Liquidators Inc. (Lumber Liquidators) of importing hardwood flooring that was made from timber illegally logged from the habitat of endangered tigers and leopards in eastern Russia. According to the joint statement of facts agreed to by DOJ and Lumber Liquidators, the company had failed to follow its internal compliance procedures by not acting on self-identified “red flags,” including importing from high-risk companies, importing high-risk species, and importing from suppliers who were unable to provide documentation of legal harvest or who provided false information. The investigation revealed that Lumber Liquidators imported the Russian timber logged under a concession permit that had been reused repeatedly, leading to Lumber Liquidators exceeding the legal harvest allowance of Mongolian Oak by more than 800%. In other instances, the company had falsely reported the species or harvest country of its imported timber. It agreed to plea to a felony count for U.S. customs violations and misdemeanor counts under the Lacey Act. In total, Lumber Liquidators paid $13.15 million to address the charges, including $7.8 million in criminal fines, $969,175 in criminal forfeiture, and more than $1.23 million in community service payments. Lumber Liquidators also agreed to implement a compliance plan and independent audits.¹⁴

Monetary Penalties: Any person who violates the trafficking provisions of the Lacey Act and, in the exercise of due care, should have known that the wood or plant product was taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of the Lacey Act may be subject to a civil administrative penalty of no more than $10,000. Individuals found guilty of a misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act may be subject to a fine of $100,000 or twice the gross gain or loss; corporations may be subject to a fine of $200,000 or twice the gross gain or loss for misdemeanor violations. Individuals found guilty of a felony violation of the Lacey Act may be subject to a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, while corporations may be subject to a fine of $500,000 or twice the gross gain or loss. Restitution may also be imposed.

Name: A Lacey Act declaration must contain the following information: (1) the scientific name of any plant, including the genus and species of the plant; (2) a description of the value of the import and the quantity, including the unit of measure, of the plant; and (3) the name of the country from which the plant was taken.¹⁵

Innocent Owner: When it comes to the possibility of forfeiture, there is no “innocent owner” defense to the Lacey Act. If a subsequent holder of the wood or plant product did not know that it had been obtained in violation of the Lacey Act, the product is still subject to forfeiture as illegal contraband.

Plywood: Is it covered? Yes, as is flooring, decking, cabinets, furniture, doors, roofing, and any other product made from wood and plants!¹⁶

PPQ Form 505: The PPQ Form 505: Plant and Plant Product Declaration must be completed for imports of wood and plant products, unless an exception applies.

Reasonable: The Lacey Act imposes a due care standard on U.S. importers.¹⁷ Importers must therefore make objectively reasonable efforts to ensure their wood products are legally sourced. The statute does not impose any specific legal requirements to determine whether a company’s efforts were reasonable or not. Reviewing past compliance plans developed in prior Lacey Act prosecutions or U.S. government commentary in these cases  can provide companies with a useful framework.

Special Use Designations: If you cannot provide the scientific name of plant material in a product, such as when a product contains recycled material, for example, a Special Use Designation can be used to describe the plant material when completing the Lacey Act declaration.¹⁸

Taken, possessed, transported, or sold: The so-called “action words” of the Lacey Act cover a wide range of activities that could implicate the Lacey Act, such as  harvesting, cutting, logging, removing, moving, conveying, carrying, shipping, delivering, and receiving.¹⁹

USC: The text of the Lacey Act is in the United States Code, Title 16, Chapter 53, Sections 3371-3378.

Phase VII: Starting in 2009, APHIS phased in the Lacey Act declaration requirement depending on the product imported. Phase VII was the last phase to be implemented and was put into effect on December 1, 2024. All imports of wood and plant products now require a Lacey Act declaration, unless an exception applies.

Wildlife: While our ABCs in this Blog focus on the Lacey Act requirements as applied to wood and plant products, wildlife imports are also covered under the Lacey Act.

EXport: Discussion of Lacey Act compliance tends to focus on the importers. It is important to note, however, that exporters must also comply with the Lacey Act, and a violation of the exporter’s legal obligations may trigger a violation of the Lacey Act, depending on the circumstance.

Young Living Essential Oils: In a 2017 settlement, the DOJ accused Young Living Essential Oils, L.C. (Young Living) of illegally trafficking rosewood oil and spikenard oil in violation of the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the DOJ’s investigation reportedly revealed that Young Living had imported rosewood oil and exported spikenard oil without the requisite CITES permits. The investigation also revealed that Young Living did not have an internal compliance program or formal procedures to prevent violations of the Lacey Act. Young Living pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and agreed to pay a fine of $500,000, $135,000 in restitution, and a community service payment of $125,000 for the conservation of protected plants used in essential oils. Young Living was also required to implement a corporate compliance plan.²⁰

Zero: If your product contains no plant material, congratulations! The declaration requirements for wood and plant products do not apply to your shipment.

Lacey Act compliance is, of course, more nuanced than can be covered in this brief primer. Our hope is that these ABCs provide an introduction into the major concepts of the law and certain issues that typically arise. For any questions about Lacey Act compliance, please reach out to the authors.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2025 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.