The European toy industry lobby claims that toys purchased on the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu do not meet European safety standards and “present a real risk” for children. Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) “purchased 19 toys from the online marketplace Temu only to find that none of them complied with European Union regulations,” said the company in a statement released on Tuesday. European federation, insisting: “this means that they should not be put on sale in the EU”.
Of these 19 toys purchased, “18 presented a real danger to the safety of children”, or 95%, adds TIE, accusing them of being able to “result in cuts, blockages of the airways, choking, strangulation, perforations and chemical hazards. She uses the example of a “rainbow ribbon rattle” intended for babies and notes that it “presents several risks, including sharp edges on the metal bells which could cut, small parts which could cause choking , rigid protrusions that can cause blockages of the airways.
“The EU has the strictest toy safety rules in the world, yet online platforms continue to allow the sale of toys by non-EU sellers that endanger children,” complains the president of the French Federation of Toy and Childcare Industries (FJP), in the joint press release with TIE.
Call from authorities to crack down
Contacted by TIE, Temu reportedly responded that he had “taken steps to make these toys unavailable on their platform.” If the FJP and TIE welcome an “encouraging reactivity”, they emphasize that “for each dangerous toy identified on the platform, there are countless others which are not identified”. And the problem does not only concern Temu, it extends according to the federations to other marketplaces outside the EU. “The problem lies with third-party sellers operating on online marketplaces who cannot be held responsible for the safety of the toy. The EU legal framework does not cover this situation,” they explain.
The FJP and TIE therefore call on “the legislator and the authorities to crack down”, seeing in the current revision of the Toy Directive an “opportunity to remedy the current legal vacuum” concerning sellers based outside the EU.