Toys and Children’s Products: EU Negotiators Agree on New Safety Rules

On April 10, 2025, the negotiators of the EU Parliament and EU Council reached a provisional agreement on the new toy safety regulations.

Highlights of this new development include the following:

• Ban on chemicals that pose particular risks to children, such as endocrine disruptors, substances harmful to the respiratory system and chemicals that are toxic for the skin and other organs.
• Ban on PFAS and the most dangerous types of bisphenols.
• Ban on allergenic fragrances in toys for children under 36 months and in toys meant to be placed in the mouth.
• Manufacturer mandate to carry out a safety assessment on all potential hazards — chemical, physical, mechanical and electrical, flammability, hygiene and radioactivity — and take children’s specific vulnerabilities into account (e.g., assessing digital toys for risks to children’s mental health).
• Clarity on the obligations of economic operators (e.g., manufacturers, importers, distributors and fulfillment service providers) and the requirements for online marketplaces, aligning with other EU regulations such as the GSPR, Ecodesign framework, and the Digital Services Act. For example, online marketplaces will have to design their platforms to allow sellers to display the CE mark, safety warnings and a link (e.g., QR code) to the digital product passport before the purchase is completed.
• Requirement for toys to bear a clearly visible digital product passport and the visibility and legibility of warnings.

The EU Council is expected to formally adopt this agreement and Parliament will endorse the text in a plenary second reading.

Official source