(Dodgy) Toy Story: "80%" of toys bought online may be dangerous

Carefully check that toys are safe before giving them to children on Christmas Day.

That was the stark warning after surveys across Europe found the majority of toys sold by certain online marketplaces are not considered safe. 

Consumer champion Which? has just released the latest of several damning surveys, which found over half of toys sold online are dangerous.

It bought 23 toys – some costing little over €1 – from online marketplaces such as AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Fruugo, Temu, TikTok and Wish. And serious safety problems emerged with more than half (52%) of them.

The 12 dangerous products posed risks to children that include choking, sharp points and strangulation.

Which? said: “The research shows yet again how consumers are inadequately protected when buying products from online marketplaces. Which? is calling (for) greater legal responsibility on online marketplaces to prevent unsafe items from being sold on their platforms in the first place.”

 “If even half are dangerous  – that’s every second one. That’s very serious,” says Michael Kilcoyne, chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland.

“I’d call on the EU to take serious steps because they are clearly failing in their duty to protect consumers. We’re talking about children here. There seems to be no protection for them. The law should be extended and enforced.”

Ireland’s main consumer watchdog has clamped down on unsafe toys this Christmas and is particularly concerned about ‘button batteries’ which can cause choking and poisoning if swallowed.

 “This year we recalled approximately 78,000 toys for not complying with product safety laws and our inspectors have been out ahead of Christmas searching for unsafe toys and other products,” says Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) spokesperson Grainne Griffin.

The authority recommends that consumers buy toys from reputable retailers as they should have systems in place to ensure their products comply with legislation.

 However, Mr Kilcoyne is concerned that so many dangerous toys find their way onto the Irish market in the first place, especially those shipped from online marketplaces abroad, despite  strict EU regulations on local toymakers and retailers.

 “The Government doesn’t seem to be concerned. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is meant to be looking after consumers and if all this happening then they’re not doing that properly. They may say they are implementing the law as it stands but they have a duty to point out to Government if the law needs to be tightened,” said Mr Kilcoyne.

 The CCPC stressed that it does “work closely with distributors, manufacturers, importers, public bodies and agencies, other EU regulators and market surveillance authorities to prevent unsafe products being placed on the Irish market.”

The Which? study is the least damning in a spate of alarming surveys on toy safety in Europe.

In October, Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) bought 100 sample toys online in another study.

And it found that a shocking 80 of them, including slime kits, musical toys and magnetic sets, failed EU safety standards and were deemed to be dangerous for children. 

The marketplaces involved were Allegro, AliExpress, Amazon Marketplace, Bol, Cdiscount, Fruugo, Light In The Box, Shein, Temu, and Wish. 

Worryingly, six of these companies had already signed the EU Product Safety Pledge, a voluntary commitment from 2023 to stop the sale of unsafe products on their platforms, yet with little effect, it seems.

In the same month, the British Toy & Hobby Association (BTHA) also bought five toys from Temu. Three were found to be unsafe and one illegal.

Earlier in the year, in yet another damning study, TIE bought 19 toys from TEMU and found that NONE fully complied with EU legislation and 18 posed a real safety risk for children. 

“A rainbow ribbon rattle for babies poses several safety risks, including sharp edges on metallic bells that could cut, small parts that could cause choking, rigid protrusions that might lead to blockages. And migration of boron from one slime kit was 11 times higher than the legal limit for toys,” TIE said.

“18 of the 19 toys did not have an EU address, which is a requirement under the EU Market Surveillance Regulation.”

“When TIE informed TEMU of its findings, they responded that they took action and the toys can no longer be found on their platform. While their responsiveness is encouraging, corrective actions do not suffice. For every unsafe toy identified on the platform, there are countless others not found and in the hands of consumers across the EU.”

A Temu spokesman told Mailonline: ‘Like Amazon, AliExpress and eBay, Temu is a marketplace, allowing third-party merchants to sell their products all over the world.

‘We take very seriously the safety of products sold by these third parties and have a comprehensive vetting, monitoring, and enforcement process to ensure that products meet platform rules and regulatory requirements.

‘If and when concerns are raised, we immediately remove any product listings in question pending a thorough review.’

TIE sent all the toys to an EU-accredited independent safety laboratory for testing against the EU’s toy safety rules. 

Not surprisingly, EU toymakers and retailers subject to rigorous  safety laws are furious  that rogue operators can get away with selling highly dangerous toys for as little as €1, undermining their industry and potentially costing thousands of European jobs.

TIE Director General  Catherine Van Reeth says the EU needs to design – and enforce – better rules against the sale of counterfeit and unsafe toys.

“The EU has the world’s strictest toy safety rules yet online platforms continue to allow the sale of toys from non-EU sellers that endanger children.  Marketplaces such as TEMU need to take responsibility for weeding out and not allowing traders that sell illegal, unsafe toys,” she said

So how are so many dangerous toys finding their way into the hands of our kids? 

The EU’s Toy Safety Directive may be regarded as the toughest in the world. Yet “it does not cover sellers from outside the EU when the sale is facilitated through an online marketplace,” explains Aine Gurley, policy and research officer with the European Movement Ireland.

“This means that the online marketplace is “not regarded as an economic operator and therefore carries no responsibility regarding toy safety”.  

Just as digital giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter etc  are not held responsible for their content, neither are online marketplaces like Temu and Amazon.

They are responsible for taking it down. And they will generally do so (eventually). But in the meantime, more harmful content will pop up.

TIE has demanded that this legal loophole be remedied, calling for a currently ongoing revision of the toys safety Directive to consider “where there is no EU-based economic operator, the online marketplace should be deemed responsible for the safety of the toy”.

Catherine Van Reeth, Director General of TIE says: “Unsafe toys from sellers who ignore EU rules will keep flooding the EU unless online marketplaces are given more responsibility for the safety of the toys sold on their platform where no-one else In the EU has that responsibility.  Unless every player in the value chain has to play its part, a legal loophole will remain. Along with making sure there is always someone responsible for protecting children and EU consumers, we need better enforcement of the existing rules.”

Plus, third-party sellers are often based overseas, which means they can dodge the jurisdiction of EU authorities. Nearly nine out of ten toys in the world come from China, where Temu’s operations is based, although its head office is now in Ireland.

 The CCPC issued the following advice for Christmas toys:

• Check for a CE mark – all toys must have one. 

• Check for any loose, detachable parts that a child could swallow or choke on. This could include small pieces of Lego, doll accessories, fastenings on costumes, accessories etc. 

• Check that button batteries are behind a securely fastened compartment and out of reach of children.