language: en · status: in-force · last checked: 2026-09-06

Toy Safety Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2025/2509)

The EU's new toy-safety law, published in the Official Journal on 12 December 2025 (OJ L, 2025/2509) and in force since 1 January 2026 — but applying only from 1 August 2030 (Art. 59; the notified-body and delegated-powers chapters apply from 1 January 2026). It repeals the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC with effect from 1 August 2030 (Art. 56), and toys placed on the market in conformity with the Directive before that date stay marketable (Art. 57(1)).

Until 31 July 2030, Directive 2009/48/EC is the operative toy-safety law — for current certification work consult it on EUR-Lex (see Sources); this folder reproduces the successor Regulation because that is what new-product planning must design against, including its headline addition: the digital product passport replacing the paper EC declaration of conformity (Art. 19).

Applicability to EdTech

• The classification question comes first. The Regulation applies to "products that are designed or intended, whether or not exclusively, for use in play by children under 14 years of age (toys)", judged by whether "a parent or supervisor can reasonably assume, by virtue of the functions, dimensions and characteristics of that product, that it is intended for use in play by children of a relevant age group" (Art. 2(1)) — with an excluded-products list in Art. 2(2)–(3). Classroom VR hardware and teaching devices are not designed or intended for play, but "whether or not exclusively" makes marketing and presentation load-bearing: a product pitched for games or child-led entertainment invites toy classification, which brings the full regime (essential safety requirements, digital product passport, toy-specific warnings).
• RED interaction: for toys with radio functions, the RED cybersecurity delegated requirements and EN 18031-2 already name toys and childcare equipment — see the RED README.
• Digital product passport (Arts. 19–23): required per toy from application, accessible via a data carrier — a supply-chain system change, not paperwork.
• Safety assessment before placing on the market (Art. 25), conformity routes at Art. 26, CE marking at Arts. 17–18.

Contents

Scope note: fulfilment service providers and online marketplaces (Arts. 11, 14), the DPP technical articles (Arts. 20–23), notified-body machinery (Arts. 28–44), market surveillance (Arts. 45–48), ECHA opinions (Arts. 51–52) and the annexes (incl. Annex II particular safety requirements and its chemical rules) can be added with the same tooling when needed.

Key obligations at a glance

• Toys must meet the essential safety requirements — the general requirement plus Annex II particular requirements — including foreseeable use "bearing in mind the behaviour of children" (Art. 5).
• Warnings per Art. 6 (general and toy-category-specific, user-visible at purchase including online).
• Manufacturers: safety assessment (Art. 25), conformity assessment (Art. 26), digital product passport (Art. 19), CE marking (Arts. 17–18), plus the Art. 7 duties.
• Until 1 August 2030: comply with Directive 2009/48/EC instead; pre-2030 Directive-conformant stock stays marketable (Art. 57(1)).

Enforcement

National market surveillance under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (Arts. 45–48, not extracted); national penalties, "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" (Art. 55).

Licence

The corpus reproduces the Official Journal text of Regulation (EU) 2025/2509 (CELEX 32025R2509) from EUR-Lex; the consolidated Directive 2009/48/EC is cited.

The EUR-Lex legal notice (eur-lex.europa.eu/content/legal-notice/legal-notice.html, read 2026-10-01 in the Internet Archive copy captured that day, because EUR-Lex refuses non-browser clients) says: "© European Union, 1998-2026 The Commission’s document reuse policy is based on Decision 2011/833/EU. Unless otherwise specified, you can re-use the legal documents published in EUR-Lex for commercial or non-commercial purposes." For consolidated texts it adds: "The copyright for the editorial content of this website, the summaries of EU legislation and the consolidated texts, which is owned by the EU, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. This means that you can re-use the content provided you acknowledge the source and indicate any changes you have made."

Commission Decision 2011/833/EU on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39, read in the Publications Office Cellar copy on 2026-10-01) provides in Article 4 that "All documents shall be available for reuse: (a) for commercial or non-commercial purposes under the conditions laid down in Article 6", and Article 6(2) lists the conditions that may be attached: "(a) the obligation for the reuser to acknowledge the source of the documents; (b) the obligation not to distort the original meaning or message of the documents; (c) the non-liability of the Commission for any consequence stemming from the reuse."

Conditions, and how this corpus meets them:

• Acknowledge the source: each extracted provision carries a {.meta} provenance line naming EUR-Lex and the CELEX number, and Sources links the EUR-Lex text.
• Indicate changes: the provision text is unchanged; the changes are the selection of provisions, the Markdown layout and the added anchors, all described in Meta.
• Do not distort the meaning: the text is reproduced verbatim and checked mechanically against the source (see Meta).
• No endorsement or liability: the corpus does not claim that the EU or the Publications Office endorses it, and only the Official Journal text is authentic.

Related

• Product-safety cluster index
• Radio Equipment Directive — toys with radio functions carry RED duties today, including the Art. 3(3)(e) privacy requirement
• GPSR — the safety net for child-appealing products that are not toys

Sources

• EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2025/2509 (Toy Safety Regulation), OJ text
• EUR-Lex — Directive 2009/48/EC (Toy Safety Directive), consolidated text — the operative law until 31 July 2030