EU - GUIDANCE DOCUMENT No 11: Toys Intended for Children Under 36 Months of Age or of 36 Months and Over

​This Guidance document is a non-binding document intended to provide guidelines to help Member States and stakeholders on the classification of toys intended for children under 36 months of age or of 36 months and over. The proposals in this document are not necessarily supported by all the experts in the Expert Group on Toy Safety. However, on the whole the document reflects the general approach of the Expert Group regarding the classification of toys intended for children under 36 months of age or of 36 months and over. The images appearing in the document constitute examples intended to facilitate the decision-making. They do not presuppose the conformity of the represented products1. This Guidance document does not relieve national authorities from their obligation to determine for any individual product, on a case-by-case basis, whether it falls within the scope of application of the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC or within the scope of application of other sectoral legislation. The Court of Justice of the European Union has repeatedly held that the national authorities, acting under the supervision of the courts, must proceed on a case-by-case basis, taking account of all the characteristics of the product. Therefore, this document shall not “prescribe” which regulatory framework applies. Rather, it shall serve as one out of many elements supporting the national competent authorities in their case-by-case decision on individual products. In particular, this Guidance document does not prevent a national authority from consulting with colleagues from other regulated sectors concerned in order to reach a complete view on all aspects related to a given product. This guidance document (including its classification criteria) is not meant to affect products already placed on the market before the revised document has been published on the Europa website.

Guidance (europa.eu)​