• St. Nicholas’ Day is today. When choosing gifts for this occasion, pay attention to their safety.
• We inspected a total of 85 models of different toys: sound toys for babies, projectile toys and activity boards to determine whether they are adequately labelled and their design does not endanger the youngest consumers.
• There are significant differences in the results across different toy categories – we found the highest percentage of irregularities when examining activity boards.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection oversees the market and ensures that only safe products that meet the requirements are available to Polish consumers. In particular, he draws attention to the toy market, which is supervised throughout the year, in different segments, including in cooperation with other authorities, such as fiscal authorities, which seize defective products already at the border.

- We make sure that the toys that end up in the hands of the youngest consumers are safe. Throughout the year, we check them, verify their labelling and safety certificates and examine their design – dimensions, presence of small parts, level of loudness; we also tear, burn, crush them or drop them from heights – in other words, we test them in extreme conditions – explains Tomasz Chróstny, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

Results of inspection

During recent inspections, we tested a total of 85 models of toys from different categories. We checked them for proper labelling and design flaws, such as too small elements that a child can easily swallow, or long lines a toddler may choke on. Proper auditory development of a child is the basis for speech development, which is why it is so important to protect the child from sound stimuli that may damage his or her hearing. Therefore, we placed particular emphasis on sound accessories for babies. We also verified whether the products are well-made. The inspectors focused their magnifying glass on: 51 models of sound toys for infants – we found non-conformities in 10 of them (5 laboratory and 5 formal reasons), 20 projectile toys – 7 had structural irregularities, and 14 types of activity boards for children under 3 years of age – 8* of them were questioned (7 laboratory and 3 formal reasons).
* We found more than one non-conformity in a single toy model.

Find out detailed results of the inspection: sound toys for babies and list, projectile toys and list, activity boards and list.

Conclusion and results of the inspection

- A toy that meets all the requirements is a reliable toy; it’s one that supports the development of various skills of the youngest and is also safe. The results of the inspection have shown that there are more and more rattles, humming teddy bears and similar sound toys for babies which do not raise concerns. Inspections of projectile toys, on the other hand, indicate that structural non-conformities in this market segment remain stable and mainly concern imported toys. For the first time, we tested activity boards for children under the age of 3 and unfortunately, more than half of them were defective – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

Once we have pointed out the irregularities, entrepreneurs took corrective action, for example, they remedied labelling deficiencies or withdrew non-conforming toys from the market and informed consumers about the irregularities found. In total, the President of UOKiK initiated 13 administrative proceedings for product recalls, and 3 applications for their initiation are under review.  

Consumer counselling

- We verify the robustness of toys and adapt them to the age of our little ones. When choosing toys for the youngest, we should pay particular attention to small elements that a child may accidentally swallow and choke on when exploring the world with the sense of taste. I encourage you to read the detailed results of the inspection – adds the President of UOKiK.

If you are a parent or guardian, make sure that your child’s toy meets the requirements and does not pose a danger. You can do it using a publicly available EU system which collects data on non-compliant products detected by market surveillance authorities in the European Union:

• Safety Gate: https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport#recentAlerts
• ICSMS http://webgate.ec.europa.eu/icsms/public/productSearch.jsp?locale=pl

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone: 22 55 60 246
Email: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL
You can also follow us on Instagram: @uokikgovpl