As with other EU safety regulations, the Toy Safety Directive is reviewed every five years, specifically “in relation to its objectives of ensuring a high level of safety of toys with a view to ensure the health and safety of children… and guaranteeing the functioning of the internal market”. Launched in July 2018, the evaluation is currently in its public consultation phase. This will be immediately followed by a targeted consultation concerned with collecting data from economic operators in the market as to the costs and benefits of the obligations under the Directive.
This dual pronged approach will assist the Commission with collecting both qualitative and quantitative data to inform their subsequent comments on the effectiveness of the Directive. The feedback collected from the public and targeted consultations will be made public in a Synopsis Report prior to the publication of the Commission’s full report, which will be published in Q2 2019.
The consultation is open to all members of the public, including consumers, consumer organisations, EU Member State Authorities and industry. If you want to get involved, you need to answer a series of questions regarding the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence, and EU added value of the Directive. Specifically, the questions address whether the Directive (i) has helped to improve the safety of toys on the market; (ii) has reduced the number of injuries caused by toys; and (iii) contains appropriate and clear labelling/reporting requirements. Although the answers are largely multiple choice, there is space for further information to be added and detailed responses are encouraged. The consultation period ends on 12 December.
If the Toy Safety Directive affects your business in any way, then you should really think about partaking. Having a variety of voices from different sources contribute to this discussion will ensure that the evaluation of the Directive is as representative as possible, and that any changes instituted as a result take into account multiple viewpoints. You can choose to give feedback anonymously, in which case your name and organisation is not identified.
The consultation can be accessed here.
