What progress has been made in the evaluation of business safety measures in the toy supply chain?
The Commission is carrying out a project to evaluate the safety measures put in place by businesses in the toy supply chain. This evaluation includes the participation of the toy industry, consumer organisations, Member States and standardisation and test institute experts. The evaluation is currently ongoing and the aim is to present the final results by the end of May. Nevertheless, preliminary conclusions indicate that one of the main problems is smaller players in the supply chain, who are less well-equipped to deal with safety issues, due to a lack of dedicated personnel, weak quality management systems and poor supplier control. Smaller importers too seem less concerned about safety and struggle with issues such as the classification of toys and age grading. It is clear that competitive pressure on international markets push companies to try to limit costs linked to safety obligations, but the Commission is working with both business and national authorities to ensure this is doe
