TIE will need to carefully evaluate the final agreed text and how this will impact our members’ ability to continue to place safe toys on the market. While our companies fully support the EU’s efforts to keep toy safety regulations up to date, it is crucial that these do not impose a disproportionate burden on reputable toy manufacturers—especially given that the EU already has the strictest safety rules in the world. If the EU wants to ensure competitiveness of its economic players, it has to create a level-playing field.
Whatever the final text will say, toy manufacturers need to have sufficient time to adapt to the new requirements. We depend on external factors such as clear guidance, secondary legislation such on the Digital Product Passport, and the development of new standards before we can start implementation. Given the long lead-times our sector has, we are worried that we will run out of time to produce toys under the new requirements if there is delay in the necessary legislative pre-work.
Responsible toy makers will continue creating safe toys. With the new rules, that process may however become a lot more expensive, harming the competitiveness of EU businesses and raising the price gap between compliant toys and non-compliant, counterfeit and unsafe products often sold via online platforms.
These investments and efforts should therefore not be rendered pointless by the unfair competition from operators who do not care about following the rules and do not invest in safety and compliance. Tackling the lack of legal accountability of online marketplaces when there is no EU-based seller is now of utmost importance to ensure that our children are kept safe and that rogue traders cannot get away with breaking the rules.
TIE’s 2024 shopping exercise showed that 80% of toys bought from third-country sellers via online marketplaces failed to meet EU safety standards. In recent weeks, 850 toy companies have joined the call to stop illegal toys at stopillegaltoys.eu.
We urge the EU to close legal loopholes and strengthen enforcement as soon as possible.
