Toy manufacturers will be subject to a “limited ban on intentional use” of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the making of their products and components, under a deal reached by EU law makers.
Earlier this month, the European Parliament and Council of Ministers announced that they had reached provisional agreement over a proposed new EU toy safety regulation.
The draft legislative text reflecting the provisional agreement is yet to be published, but the Parliament has stated that new rules banning the intended use of PFAS and “the most dangerous types of bisphenols” have been agreed on at its “insistence”.
Earlier in the legislative process, MEPs adopted proposals that included provisions prohibiting use of PFAS and bisphenols in toys, components of toys or micro-structurally distinct parts of toys. Those proposals envisaged limited exceptions to the PFAS ban. Those exceptions included batteries in toys and “toy components necessary for electronic or electric functions of the toy where the substance or mixture is fully inaccessible to children”, when the toy is used as it is intended or in a foreseeable way.
Whilst the exact terms of the prohibition on PFAS remain unclear, in announcing the deal the Council said the agreed text introduces “a limited ban on the intentional use of PFAS in toys”. This appears to suggest a more nuanced approach to a prohibition has been agreed than the more radical ban suggested by MEPs. The Council also said there will be “exemptions for toy components necessary for electronic or electric functions of the toy where the substance or mixture is fully inaccessible to children”.
PFAS are a class of more than 10,000 fluorinated chemicals used in everyday products – from beauty and healthcare products, to clothing, semiconductors, medical equipment, in food and drinks packaging, in cleaning chemicals, and in firefighting foam, among other things. PFAS chemicals each have different properties and serve different purposes – for instance, they can make products resistant to oil, water, or heat. Some of these chemicals are known to degrade very slowly – data is not available on all of them – which has led to the colloquialism ‘forever chemicals’ being used to describe them.
A more general EU ban on the manufacture, placing on the market and use of PFAS is currently under consideration by committees within the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), though a full ban is only one of a number of different options on the table.
PFAS restrictions form only part of the safety measures built into the provisionally agreed toy safety regulation. Other features include requirements for safety warnings and the establishment of a digital product passport (DPP), which is designed to increase traceability, improve the provision of safety information and simplify customs checks.
The list of prohibited substances in toys has also been expanded: carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reproductive toxic (CRM) substances are already banned, but law makers have provisionally agreed to further prohibit chemicals deemed of particular harm to children, such as endocrine disruptors, substances harmful to the respiratory system, and chemicals that are toxic for the skin and other organs.
Under the provisionally agreed new regime, before placing a toy on the market, manufacturers will have to carry out a safety assessment on all potential hazards − chemical, physical, mechanical, and electrical. The assessment will also have to test toys’ flammability, hygiene, and radioactivity, and take children’s specific vulnerabilities into account. This will include an obligation on manufacturers, where appropriate, to ensure that digital toys do not pose risks to children’s mental health.
The draft toy safety regulation will now be put to separate votes of the Council and Parliament. If adopted, it will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Member states will then have 54 months to comply with the provisions.
The provisionally agreed new regime will sit alongside more general product safety rules in operation in the EU. The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), which updated a 2001 EU directive, has applied since 13 December 2024
The GPSR applies to products that are placed or made available on the market insofar as there are no specific provisions with the same objective under EU law which regulate the safety of the products concerned. Where products are subject to specific EU safety requirements, the GPSR applies only to those aspects and risks or categories of risks which are not covered by those requirements. For example, toys have to comply with the GPSR when it comes to online sales, accident reporting, consumer rights to information and remedy.
According to the Financial Times, the European Commission is preparing its first ever product safety sweep of e-commerce platforms to check for breaches of EU consumer law.
The Commission recently published the results of its annual ‘safety gate’ report, which presents an overview of dangerous products notified in 2024 and follow up action taken.
According to that report, cosmetics (36%) remained the most frequently reported products posing health risks, followed by toys (15%), electrical appliances (10%), motor vehicles (9%) and chemical products (6%). Chemical ingredients were the main cause of risk in almost half of the alerts.
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