Gifts: more than 225,000 “dangerous” toys destroyed in France in 2023

Beware of gifts purchased online! More than 225,000 non-compliant and “dangerous” toys were destroyed in 2023 in France, Fraud Repression indicated on Monday in its annual report. And she is seeing a greater number of anomalies on products sold on online marketplaces.

“We control a very wide range of players throughout the year, and at all links in the chain: manufacturing when it takes place in France, importation and distribution,” summarizes François Sobry, spokesperson. word of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF).

It indicates that the main causes of danger are “the presence of small elements in toys intended for children under 3 years old, and access to fibrous filling in soft toys which pose a risk of suffocation”.

79% of non-compliant toys in e-commerce

More generally, “problems remain more frequent among non-specialized distributors, and on certain websites,” it is specified. During their checks, the investigators decided in nearly 700 cases to take “samples” of toys to have them undergo mechanical, chemical or even flammability tests in the laboratory: “47% presented non-conformities, and 19% were found to be dangerous.”

And for the 70 products coming only from 13 e-commerce platforms – which are not mentioned by name – this percentage rises to “worrying rates”, i.e. “79% of non-compliant toys including 36% dangerous”.

But “if this rate may appear high, it is the targeting that explains it,” emphasizes François Sobry. The samples are not taken at random, but on toys which are most suspected of non-compliance and dangerousness such as stuffed animals, disguises or even battery-operated games, and these results are therefore “not generalizable to the ‘all toys sold’.

In total, more than 225,000 toys were destroyed in 2023, compared to 184,000 the previous year, Fraud Repression told AFP. Among the products destroyed, she cites as an example “a lighted bubble gun whose batteries were too easily accessible, which posed a risk of absorption and suffocation; balloons that contained carcinogenic substances above regulatory thresholds; a disguise whose cords presented a risk of strangulation.”