KNS,
That's a good question, I'm not sure.
Regarding current style plates, there my be a rule against selling them in the country they are representing. For example, if I lived in Germany, they might not make current style reproduction German plates for me. I don't know, I didn't ask.
Regarding historic plates, I would assume this is not a problem. Am I correct to assume that classic style plates are not valid for road use? I would think the countries, or provinces or states, would require current plates to some degree. For example, a friend found old Ohio plates from 1966 at an antiques store. In Ohio, as in most of the USA, the year the plate was made used to be stamped in just like the plate number. If I were to put these on my car, I don't think the police would approve.
Now, what I'm doing is buying classic Italian plates and I live in the USA. So I don't think there's any problem with counterfeiting. Although, I could ship them to an Italian person, then would they get in trouble for using them?
You ask a good question. I'm not going to look into it because I'm only going to use them for car shows.
Rodd
Powell, Ohio, USA
1966 230SL, Euro, Auto, Leather, both tops
1994 E420