Hi all,
I am writing to you for your help in providing legal clarity with a matter my company is facing.
Myself and my business partners are building an online business selling 'Nootropics'. The substances falling under this term that we will be selling are all 'unscheduled' in the USA (which will be our first main market), but as they fall into a grey area of law we would really appreciate and feel safer operating after hearing some advice.
As far as I am aware, these substances are all legal to purchase, possess and import for personal use. This means they can be imported in a '3 month personal supply' capacity. Not ideal for a business looking to import for sale.
For this reason we are thinking of locating everything in China, as all these products are exported by factories already. Our factory is in Shanghai and we are looking into distribution centers based in China to handle order processing. So far we have a warehouse in the Shanghai FTZ interested in doing this for us.
There are a number of questions we need some clarity on:
1. What is the legality of exporting these substances from China internationally?
2. What are the basic drug laws of China specifically relating to uncontrolled substances?
3. Should we be selling on our site as 'research chemicals not for human consumption' or 'dietary supplements'?
4. If we are not based in the USA do we have to abide by the FDA restriction that disallows us from selling as dietary supplements?
5. Where should we incorporate the company(ies) to ensure legality? We were initially thinking a UK parent company that owns a Hong Kong company.
Apologies for the lengthy inquiry, I thought it best to get everything out on the table.
Any help would be greatly appreciated so thank you in advance!
I am writing to you for your help in providing legal clarity with a matter my company is facing.
Myself and my business partners are building an online business selling 'Nootropics'. The substances falling under this term that we will be selling are all 'unscheduled' in the USA (which will be our first main market), but as they fall into a grey area of law we would really appreciate and feel safer operating after hearing some advice.
As far as I am aware, these substances are all legal to purchase, possess and import for personal use. This means they can be imported in a '3 month personal supply' capacity. Not ideal for a business looking to import for sale.
For this reason we are thinking of locating everything in China, as all these products are exported by factories already. Our factory is in Shanghai and we are looking into distribution centers based in China to handle order processing. So far we have a warehouse in the Shanghai FTZ interested in doing this for us.
There are a number of questions we need some clarity on:
1. What is the legality of exporting these substances from China internationally?
2. What are the basic drug laws of China specifically relating to uncontrolled substances?
3. Should we be selling on our site as 'research chemicals not for human consumption' or 'dietary supplements'?
4. If we are not based in the USA do we have to abide by the FDA restriction that disallows us from selling as dietary supplements?
5. Where should we incorporate the company(ies) to ensure legality? We were initially thinking a UK parent company that owns a Hong Kong company.
Apologies for the lengthy inquiry, I thought it best to get everything out on the table.
Any help would be greatly appreciated so thank you in advance!
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