Cal. Health and Safety Code 25249.6; Cal. Code Regs. tit. 27, 25600 et seq.
For teams selling products into California working out when a Prop 65 warning is needed and what it says. This page covers what you need to know and ways to avoid running into issues.
What we've seen reported
A Prop 65 warning is the clear and reasonable warning California's Proposition 65 describes before people are exposed to listed chemicals.4 OEHHA's Article 6 regulations set out safe harbor methods and content for it.1
Last updated October 2026 · General information only, not legal advice. Sources.
What the rules cover
These are the kinds of content OEHHA's Article 6 regulations describe for California Prop 65 warnings, according to their text and OEHHA's 2024 rulemaking, and the safe harbor warning each is described with.1,3
| Content | Label it needs |
|---|---|
| Product labels and packaging | Safe harbor content: "WARNING:", the triangle symbol, a named chemical and the P65Warnings.ca.gov address. |
| Short-form warnings on labels | Since 2025, at least one named chemical for each health endpoint, in type of at least 6 points. |
| Online product listings | The warning, or a clearly marked link to it, on the product display page before purchase. |
| Catalogs | The warning near the product, so it is clear which item it relates to. |
| Food products | Safe harbor warnings without the triangle symbol, and "/food" in the short-form web address. |
| Short-form labels printed before 2028 | Products labeled with the earlier short-form wording can keep being sold without relabeling. |
| Warnings passed down the supply chain | Manufacturers and suppliers: give the warning or notify retail sellers, who hold it in limited cases. |
Where it goes wrong
One approved label ends up in many channels, markets and languages. Along the way it gets shortened, translated and reworded, and some versions end up losing the disclosure these rules require.
CA WARNING: Cancer risk from exposure to lead, with the state warnings website
How Arbitr helps
Manually review everything? Or do what modern teams do and use AI to check that what you publish matches what you approved.
FAQ
Usually between the pack and the screen. OEHHA's Article 6 regulations describe warnings on labels, online product pages and catalogs,1 and we usually find gaps in:
Treat the warning as approved content that travels with the product record, not text typed into each listing. OEHHA's 2024 rulemaking gives retailers 60 days to update online short-form warnings after notice from a manufacturer,3 so tell retailers when wording changes and check what they publish. Our packaging compliance page shows how teams track this.
More than product safety. Packaging, e-commerce, marketplace, catalog and translation teams all publish the warning, and so do retailers working from your feeds. A short briefing for each, using your own labels, helps. Other labeling rules are on our product labeling hub, including UKCA marking for Great Britain.
Keep one record per product: the approved warning wording, the chemical it names, the version (short-form or full), who approved it, and every label, listing and feed it appears in. When the wording changes, that record shows where the old version is still live.
How it applies to a specific label is a question for your legal adviser. Where that label appears across your markets and languages is a question Arbitr answers.
According to OEHHA, the short-form warning now names at least one chemical, can be used for food, and comes with a 60-day window for retailers to update online warnings. Businesses using the earlier short-form have until January 1, 2028 to move over.3
It's one way of giving a warning OEHHA treats as clear and reasonable. According to the text of Article 6, its safe harbor methods and content are deemed clear and reasonable, and nothing in it decides whether a warning is required.1
Most companies do, and it works for the file it reviews, in the language it reviews, before a campaign ships. It doesn't cover what's published afterwards: the market versions, the agency reworks, the sales deck built from the campaign six months later. That's a volume problem, not a failure of your legal team.
