Decision 2008/329 - 2008/329/EC: Commission Decision of 21 April 2008 requiring Member States to ensure that magnetic toys placed or made available on the market display a warning about the health and safety risks they pose (notified under document number C(2008) 1484) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 114/90

Pursuant to Directive 2001/95/EC and Council Directive 88/378/EEC of 3 May 1988 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning the safety of toys (2), as amended by Council Directive 93/68/EEC (3), producers are obliged to place only safe toys on the market.

Directive 88/378/EEC lays down the essential safety requirements that toys must meet to ensure the safety objectives of the Directive. In addition, the Directive provides that, in order to facilitate the proof of conformity with the essential safety requirements, European standards concerning the design and composition of toys should be drawn up by the standardisation bodies. Currently the risk posed by magnets is covered by the general safety requirement of Directive 88/378/EEC, but the Directive does not lay down particular safety requirements dealing with the risk posed by magnets.

The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) issued European standard EN 71-1:2005 ‘Safety of toys — Part I: mechanical and physical properties’ which is a consolidated version of harmonised standard EN 71-1:1998 and its 11 amendments. Toys complying with the standard are presumed to be in conformity with the essential requirements of Directive 88/378/EEC, as far as the specific requirements covered by the standard are concerned. The standard does not currently contain technical requirements for magnetic toys. In accordance with Article 8(2)(a) of Directive 88/378/EEC, producers must have recourse to EC type-examination when a harmonised standard does not cover all the risks that a toy may present.

In order to address the specific risks of magnetic toys, on 25 May 2007 the Commission gave a mandate to CEN (4), in accordance with Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (5), to revise the European standard EN 71-1:2005 within 24 months. Pending the drawing up and entry into force of the revised standard, it is necessary to address immediately the risks posed by magnetic toys in order to minimise further accidents to children caused by these toys by improving the knowledge of the risks.

In addition to Directive 88/378/EEC, the safety of toys is covered by Directive 2001/95/EC which sets out the market surveillance framework for consumer products. According to Article 13 of Directive 2001/95/EC, if the European Commission becomes aware that certain products present a serious risk to the health and safety of consumers, it may, under certain conditions, adopt a decision requiring Member States to take temporary measures intended in particular to restrict or make subject to specific conditions the placing and making available on the market of such products.

Such a decision may be adopted if (a) Member States differ significantly on the approach adopted or to be adopted to deal with the risk concerned; (b) the risk cannot, in view of the nature of the safety issue, be dealt with in a manner compatible with the degree of urgency of the case under other procedures laid...