EU Commission Publishes draft EU Toy Regulation

SG 108/23

The EU Commission has published a draft regulation to replace the current EU Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC. The draft is now open to comments and will be discussed in the EU Council and Parliament.

The EU commission has published a draft EU Toy Regulation to replace the current EU Toy safety Directive 2009/48/EC: Proposal for a Regulation on the safety of toys (europa.eu)

The draft is now open for a feedback period until the 21st of October: Protecting children from unsafe toys and strengthening the Single Market – revision of the Toy Safety Directive (europa.eu). Anyone may comment on the draft text.

The next step will be discussion in the EU council and parliament and approval. Please note that the draft is subject to change throughout the process.

Some high-level proposed changes:

• Toy regulation: the requirements will be in a Regulation. This means that EU member states no longer need to transpose the requirements into local legislation
• Digital product passport: basically, information currently provided in the Declaration of Conformity. This will replace the Declaration of Conformity. The passport should the accessible through a data carrier preferably on the toy or a label attached to the toy. For small toys it may appear on the packaging. The digital product passport is already proposed in the Ecodesign Regulation intended to justify sustainability claims. For toys, this is the first time that this is proposed to cover safety and compliance information. The EU Commission will establish a central registry where passport information will be stored
• Adding mental health risks: in addition to health and safety, toys should not present risks to the psychological and mental health, well-being and cognitive development of children
• Chemical requirements, more stringent requirements are proposed:
  • Expanding the current generic ban on CMRs to additional harmful chemicals classified as endocrine disrupters, respiratory sensitizers or substances toxic to a specific organ, with limited derogations proposed
  • The Regulation will still allow changes to limit values for chemical substances. These though may apply to all toys, not only for toys intended for children under 36 months as regulated in the current directive
  • Lowering the limit values for nitrosamines and nitrosatable substances
  • Requiring chemical safety assessment to assess additional hazards from combined exposure to the different chemicals present in a toy
• The replacement of a written warning with a pictogram will be permissible, so translation into multiple EU languages will no longer be needed
• Manufacturers shall collect and analyze consumer complaints
• There will be a transitional period of 30 months. Normally, toys placed on the market before the end of a transition period may continue to be sold until stocks run out. However, this grace period is now limited to 12 months after the transition period ends

SGS offers a wide range of services to ensure that your products comply with the EU Toy Safety Directive. We offer training, safety/risk assessment, technical documentation check, labelling review, testing according to harmonized standards, SVHC screening, inspections and audits. We operate the world’s largest network of toy experts and testing facilities – around 30 toy laboratories and certification bodies worldwide, including 3 EU Notified Bodies (France, Germany and Netherlands) and UK Approved Body. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information or visit our website. In the end, it’s only trusted because it’s tested.