Restricted and prohibited items: the list

Here is the actual list, with the rules behind it. Rules combine three layers: what airlines refuse to carry (dangerous goods), what customs of the destination country bans, and what each carrier adds on top. When in doubt, the destination customs site and your carrier's prohibited-items page are the final word.

Quick reference table

"Restricted" means yes with conditions: declaration, packaging, quantity limits, sometimes permits. "Prohibited" means never.

Lithium batteries: the one everyone asks about

Batteries drive the majority of seizures and rejections in consumer shipping. The rule of thumb that matters:

• Battery installed in a device (phone, laptop, camera): generally shippable. Carriers cap the number of devices per parcel.
• Loose or replacement batteries, and power banks: treated as standalone dangerous goods, banned from standard postal airmail. They need a ground service or a courier that accepts dangerous goods with a declaration.

The capacity line that matters is watt-hours: small batteries under 100 Wh are broadly acceptable when installed; bigger ones quickly become specialist-only. When a parcel stops moving at export for no visible reason, a loose battery is a prime suspect. If that happened to you, the recovery steps are in what to do when your parcel is held.

Why perfume is the classic trap

Perfume is flammable liquid in the legal sense: most fragrances are mostly alcohol. Postal services that allow it at all do so with tight per-bottle limits (often around 150 ml) and ground transport rules. Ordering three bottles of perfume from abroad is one of the most reliable ways to meet a customs hold.

Food and plants: biosecurity, not customs logistics

Shelf-stable processed food (chocolate, coffee, sealed snacks) usually passes. Anything fresh, alive, or capable of carrying a pest gets stopped hard: fresh fruit, meat, dairy, seeds, plants, soil. Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US are famously strict here, and "it was just snacks" does not exempt a parcel with undeclared food items inside.

What happens if you ship something restricted anyway

• Return to sender: the nicest outcome. The parcel comes back, you lose the original shipping cost.
• Seizure or destruction: customs or the airline disposes of the contents. You may receive a notice, and with perishables you often receive nothing but silence.
• Fines or prosecution: reserved for the serious end, like undeclared weapons or large chemical shipments.

If it happened to you and the tracking froze, work through the action plan in my package is stuck in customs.

Two distinctions that save headaches

1. Dangerous goods vs customs-restricted. Batteries are a transport-safety problem; counterfeit goods are a customs-legality problem. Different rules, different authorities, often both.
2. Carrier rules vs country rules. A carrier may accept an item that the destination country bans, and vice versa. Both need to be satisfied. How the item is classified at the border ties into HS codes when duties and restrictions hinge on what the item legally is.

Frequently asked questions

Can I ship a phone with its battery?

Yes, in most services, as long as the battery is installed and the parcel count stays small. A box of ten phones trips both quantity limits and commercial-import rules.

Can I mail perfume within my own country?

Domestic rules are looser than international ones, but many carriers still cap bottle size or require ground transport. "International vs domestic" is the first question; "carrier rules" is the second.

My parcel had something restricted inside and disappeared. Refund?

Carriers refuse liability for undeclared prohibited contents, and marketplaces side with sellers on this. Realistically the money is gone if the item was actually banned. If the item was legal and mis-flagged, the dispute route on the marketplace is your path.