Tonight (6 December), many children across the country will be cosying up and settling down to watch the ‘Late Late Toy Show’. Aired by the national public broadcast service, RTÉ, and now an annual institution of the Irish Christmas calendar, the Toy Show began as a Christmas slot in the early 1970s. It has now developed into a yearly night-long programme with children at the centre, testing and reviewing the toys they’ve been playing with. But what does European Union legislation have to say about toys? This Just the Facts toys with some ideas and looks at EU policies on toy safety.
What’s the (Toy) Story with Toy Safety in the EU?
The EU is the second largest toy exporter (4.6%) in the world after China, which exports approximately 86% of the world’s toys. The toy trade between EU countries is worth about €4.2 billion. When it comes to geographical distribution, Germany, Italy, and Spain stand out as having the largest toy industries in Europe. Germany leads significantly, both in employment numbers and revenue, representing roughly a quarter of the total workforce in the EU’s toy sector.
In 2023, children under the age of 14 represented 14.9% of the EU’s population, or about 66.8 million. In 2014, there were about 5,300 companies employing over 51,000 people directly in the toys sector, most (84%) of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In short, toys are a crucial industry in the EU’s single market and, as products, affect a considerable percentage of the population.
Toys play a vital role in childhood development and therefore toy safety is a top priority in the European Union. In fact, toy safety requirements in the EU are among the strictest in the world, particularly when it comes to the presence of chemicals in toys. EU policies in this area can be categorised as legislation or guidance. Regarding legislation, the Toy Safety Directive (Directive 2009/48/EC) and its adjacent amendments, reports, evaluations and expert group on toy safety are the main policy instruments. In terms of guidance, the EU issues guidance documents to toy manufacturers, importers, distributors, and public authorities so that they are fully equipped to interpret and apply the Toy Safety Directive.
The EU Toy Safety Directive was adopted in 2009 and had to be fully transposed by EU Member States by 2011. The chemical safety requirements have applied since 2013. It sets out strict rules to ensure toys sold on the EU market are safe for children. The Directive applies to all toys intended for children under the age of 14, covering everything from plush animals to high-tech gadgets. It does not apply to some toys, including slings and catapults, as well as toy steam engines (see Article 2).
The legislation applies to manufacturers who must provide the CE marking as proof that their toys comply with EU safety standards. It also applies to importers and distributors who must verify that toys entering the EU market meet the Directive’s requirements, as well as retailers who are responsible for selling toys that conform to EU rules. The Directive itself does not specify technical detail for safety requirements – these details are developed instead by the European Standardisation Organisations. The various steps for manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers can be found here.
The Directive essentially outlines safety standards for toys and their components. It addresses “general” risks and “particular” risks – general risks being the overall health and safety of children, as well as their parents or caregivers, and particular risks comprising any physical, mechanical, chemical, electrical, and fire-related risks. It also regulates issues like choking hazards and harmful substances such as lead and mercury. Toys sold in the EU are not permitted to contain certain allergenic fragrances (55 in total), including fig leaf and treemoss extracts. In addition to the mandatory requirements set out in the Directive, the harmonised standards also specify warnings that should accompany certain categories of toys and details, as well as where and how exactly manufacturers should label these warnings.
Regarding recalls and enforcement, the EU operates the Rapid Alert System for Dangerous Non-Food Products (RAPEX), which allows Member States to share information about unsafe products, including toys. This system helps ensure swift action, such as recalls or bans, if a toy is found to pose a risk to children. In the Commission’s 2019 report on the application of the Directive, all 27 Member States reported that they used the RAPEX notification system.
Toxic Slime?: Online Marketplaces and Toy Safety
In February 2024, Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) reported that it had bought 19 toys from the Chinese online marketplace, Temu. TIE stated that “one of the toys fully complied with EU legislation and 18 posed a real safety risk for children”. In November 2024, Reuters reported that Temu had said it was “seeing an increase in searches for toys by prospective shoppers”.
Temu is operated by PDD Holdings, a Chinese company based in Ireland. It offers a plethora of products at a very low price point, often shipped from China. Temu is used in many different EU countries. Almost 10 million people downloaded Temu in Spain in 2023, making it the most popular marketplace app in the country. It is also the most popular marketplace app in Portugal and is the most downloaded app (excluding games) in Poland, receiving more downloads than TikTok in the country.
A more recent report from TIE (October 2024), showed that of some 100 toys bought on ten different online marketplaces, 80% failed EU safety standards and were deemed potentially dangerous for children. The unsafe toys identified included slime kits, musical toys and magnetic sets. TIE stated that the toys were bought from “Allegro, AliExpress, Amazon Marketplace, Bol, Cdiscount, Fruugo, Light In The Box, Shein, Temu, and Wish”. Importantly, of these ten companies, six have signed the EU Product Safety Pledge. This is a voluntary commitment introduced in 2023 to stop the sale of unsafe products on their platforms.
These derogations are prevalent because of a legal loophole where the Toy Safety Directive does not cover sellers from outside the EU when the sale is facilitated through an online marketplace. This means that the online marketplace is “not regarded as an economic operator and therefore carries no responsibility regarding toy safety”. TIE demanded that this legal loophole be remedied, calling for any revision of the Directive to consider “where there is no EU-based economic operator, the online marketplace should be deemed responsible for the safety of the toy”.
In October 2024, the European Commission announced that it was opening formal proceedings against Temu under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The investigation will focus on “the systems Temu has in place to limit the sale of non-compliant products in the EU”.
Revision of the Toy Safety Directive
It is because of these issues such as the risks of non-compliance, outlined above, that a revision of the 2009 Toy Safety Directive was brought forward. Additionally, in the Commission’s 2019 report on the application of the Directive, the majority of Member States (23) “reported to encounter difficulties in implementing the Directive” and that it was “generally difficult to obtain information from economic operators such as the technical documentation, safety assessment, test reports or names of suppliers”.
In 2022, the European Commission launched a public consultation regarding a revision of the 2009 Toy Safety Directive. In 2023, the Commission tabled a proposal for a regulation on the safety of toys which would consolidate all amendments to the 2009 Directive into one piece of legislation. The scope of the proposed regulation remains almost unchanged in comparison with the 2009 Toy Safety Directive, with the exception of the proposal to include catapults and slings. It would also extend the scope of the ban on harmful chemicals. The current Directive contains a general prohibition on substances deemed to be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR), however it does not refer to other substances such as endocrine disruptors or substances that are toxic for our immune and respiratory systems.
The proposal was referred to the European Parliament committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Marion Walsmann (EPP, Germany) was appointed as rapporteur. In March 2024, the Parliament voted to approve its position and in May 2024, the Council of the EU adopted its position for negotiations. In November 2024, the IMCO committee announced its decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations in plenary. The first trilogue took place on 20 November 2024 and a mandate was given to start work.
Regarding the providers of online marketplaces, the Council’s position is that “toys that do not conform with the toy safety regulation will be regarded as illegal content for the purposes of the DSA”. Additionally, the Council’s position requires the “interfaces of online marketplaces be designed and organised in a way that allows economic operators to display the CE marking”. The Parliament’s position (amendment 39a) states that “online marketplaces should take responsibility for addressing the sale of toys that do not comply with this Regulation and should cooperate with market surveillance authorities”.