According to an industry association, some toymakers are “flooding” Europe with harmful toys sold through online marketplaces, including magnets that may puncture a child’s intestines if swallowed and products containing toxic chemicals.
Toy Industries of Europe, which represents toy manufacturers in the European Union and the United Kingdom, said it recently purchased more than 100 toys from third-party sellers on ten online marketplaces, including Amazon (AMZN), and discovered that 80% of the toys failed to meet EU safety standards, posing a potential “danger to children.”
“Unsafe toys from sellers who ignore EU rules will continue to flood the EU unless online marketplaces are given more responsibility for the safety of the toys sold on their platform, which no one else in the EU has,” TIE’s director general, Catherine Van Reeth, said in a statement Thursday. “Unless every player in the value chain has to play its part, a legal loophole will remain.”
‘Danger’ To Children: Amazon Among Online Marketplaces Selling Unsafe Toys In Europe
The products researched were sold by both EU and non-EU traders on marketplaces such as Temu and Shein, low-cost Chinese platforms, as well as Amazon.
A spokeswoman for Amazon stated that the business had “proactive measures in place to prevent unsafe or non-compliant products from being listed” on its website. “The products in question have been removed while we investigate,” they informed CNN during the interview.
Temu’s representative told CNN that product quality and consumer safety were “top priorities” for the company. “All merchants on our network must adhere to strict safety rules… We respond quickly to complaints, take immediate action to remove non-compliant products, and address any issues,” they stated.
A Shein spokeswoman told CNN that third-party merchants on its platform must adhere to its “stringent product compliance standards” and that the products in question had been “immediately removed” from its site while an inquiry was underway.
As part of TIE’s investigation, independent laboratory testing was performed on the products purchased by the group, including a newborn teething toy that might easily break into little pieces, providing a choking risk. It also discovered slime products with boron levels 13 times higher than the EU’s permissible limit. Boron can hurt reproductive health, according to TIE.
The study’s findings “do not reflect the safety of all toys available on these platforms,” the group stated, pointing out that it had not purchased any toys from well-known manufacturers.
‘Danger’ To Children: Amazon Among Online Marketplaces Selling Unsafe Toys In Europe
The EU has the “strictest toy safety regime in the world,” yet toymakers from outside the bloc are immune from EU regulations when selling their products through online marketplaces, according to TIE.
Six of the ten online marketplaces studied, including Amazon, have signed the EU’s Product Safety Pledge, a voluntary commitment to ensure the safety of goods sold on their platforms by third parties, according to the industry body, which also urged EU leaders to hold such marketplaces legally responsible for the safety of third-party products listed.
In the United States, regulators are also concerned about the safety of goods offered online. In September, two Consumer Items Safety Commission officials requested an investigation against Shein and Temu for the probable selling of “deadly baby and toddler products.”
SOURCE | CNN
