All toys that are imported or produced within the European Union must comply with the Toy Safety Directive.

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The Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC was published in June 2009 and replaced the previous version of the Directive (88/368/EEC), which was repealed in July 2011.

 

The Directive is the comprehensive piece of legislation that addresses Toy Safety for Europe. Any toy products that are either imported or manufactured within the European Union must comply with the requirements of the Toy Safety Directive (TSD). The original legislation did not deal with all risk to toys, hence, further annexes were added.

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In addition to the requirements of the legislation from 2009, there are chemical requirements in Annex II which were applied from 20th July 2013.  

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Not all party items are classed as toys. To help interpret the most common ones, official guidance is provided by the European Commission for which items are classed as a toy.

 

For example, did you know that Christmas decorations and certain children's fashion jewelry are classed as decorative and jewelry items, not toys? Any item that is not classed as a toy must meet the criteria of the General Product Safety Directive.

 

Be aware, however, that certain aspects are not covered under the TSD, such as hygiene and radioactivity. In such circumstances, the TSD calls for the closest applicable national or international standards to apply.

 

In order to maintain compliance to the essential requirements of the Toy Safety Directive - Harmonised Standards are created for use across the EU. Click on the button below and learn more about these standards.