On 2 March, the EU Commission opened a public consultation on the Toy Safety Directive (only available in English). On 16 February, the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) adopted its own Initiative Report on a possible revision of the Toy Safety Directive, asking the Commission to draft legislation to limit values for certain chemicals, improve the market surveillance, the traceability and safety of toys online, and look into mandatory labelling schemes on lifetime, reparability, spare parts and sustainability. This consultation addresses these issues. We are expecting a legislative proposal for Q4 2022. We welcome any comments that members may have on our draft reply until Friday 13 May COB.
The EU Parliament’s Report includes aspects that are interesting but not critical for the retail sector:
- The Directive should be transformed in a Regulation that is directly applicable in all Member States.
- The Revision should include stricter measures on chemicals, aligning limit values of several legislations and deleting the age limit of 36 months.
- The market surveillance for toys should be strengthened. The use of AI and block chain for market surveillance and monitoring of online market places could be included.
- Online market places should take additional steps to ensure the safety of toys, increasing the traceability of toys online.
- The Parliament considers mandatory labelling schemes on lifetime, reparability, spare parts and sustainability. The Parliament also invites the Commission to explore e-labelling schemes.
The Parliament also invites the Commission to assess the possibility of establishing a pan-European accident and injury database with a special section for toys.
The EU Commission acknowledges several shortcomings of the current Directive, especially on chemicals, market surveillance and national enforcement. A generic approach to risk management of endocrine disruptors and persistent and bio-accumulative substances is missing. The EU Commission seeks to clarify which chemical substances should be more restricted and where derogations remain useful. Limit values should not distinguish children below or over 36 months. Importantly, the Commission also wishes to assess the possibility of digital labelling schemes for toys. The Toy Safety Directive does not yet include provisions on data protection and privacy. Questions in the consultation address the administrative and financial costs of changes in labelling requirements and whether to include digital toys in the scope of the Toy Safety Directive or whether they are sufficiently covered by more specific texts (GDPR, low voltage Directive, AI Act).
In our response we highlight several concerns. Firstly, the provisions on isolated cases that are already included in the recent proposal on a General Product Safety Regulation should also be included in a new Toy Safety Regulation. Retailers would be allowed to directly report single faulty products to the manufacturer who would then alert authorities. Retailers would not need to fear legal actions from manufacturers for notifying their products by mistake. Secondly, the reporting obligations and obligations of the distributors should be aligned across all product safety regulations. Thirdly, in case of digital product labelling vulnerable consumers might no longer have access to digital product information at all. In addition, there could be a risk that responsibility for making available a printed version is passed on from the manufacturer to the retailer. We argue that this would be unworkable in practice and that digital product information is premature at this stage.
We do not take a specific position on any substance or conformity assessment procedures. We argue that cybersecurity and privacy aspects are already sufficiently covered by the existing regulation. We welcome any comments that members may have on the durability/reparability of toys, spare parts and sustainability until Friday 13 May COB.
Please find our draft reply here.
