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The European Parliament wants to establish new, stricter rules to guarantee the safety of toys distributed on its territory. To do this, each toy sold in the European Union must have a digital product passport. It will guarantee consumers better access to information relating to the composition and dangerousness of toys.
These new rules aim to reduce the number of dangerous products sold within the European Union in order to protect children from possible risks. Parliament has approved the overhaul of EU toy safety rules. The voted text responds to a certain number of new issues, particularly in terms of digital toys and online purchases. It strengthens the ban on certain chemical substances deemed to be carcinogenic, mutagenic or even toxic for reproduction present in certain toys. The latter must also not contain perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkaline substances.
For their part, toys integrating digital elements, more and more numerous on the market, will have to respect security standards, but also confidentiality, from their design. As for those equipped with artificial intelligence, they will have to comply with the new European law on AI, in particular by guaranteeing the protection of personal data.
Each toy sold in the EU must therefore have a digital product passport. It will replace the current European declaration of conformity. This passport will be intended to improve the traceability of toys and should make customs inspections simpler and much more efficient. Thanks to it, consumers will also have easy access to information relating to the safety and warnings of each product, through a QR code to scan.
The final text will have to be submitted to parliamentarians for a vote again later in the year.
According to the EU Safety Gate, which aims to provide rapid warning of dangerous non-food products on the European market, almost one in four products reported was a toy in 2022.
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