Toy Association - Advocating for Your Business 365 Days a Year

By Ed Desmond

In 2022, toy companies turned to e Toy Association’s advocacy team for guidance and insight on a range of global and domestic regulatory, trade, sustainability, intellectual property, online privacy, and technical and safety issues impacting the business of toys and play.

is coming year will be no di erent, as the Association sets its sights on 28 priority actions and more than 150 speci c tasks designed to protect and promote the industry and in direct response to member needs.

Last year, the Association advocated for the passage of the INFORM Consumers Act, which was ultimately signed into law by President Biden as part of the Omnibus bill. As the sheer volume of bad actors selling dangerous and violative products continue to proliferate in the e-commerce space, the team will continue advocating for passage of the SHOP SAFE Act, which was excluded from the Omnibus.

Alongside this work, the Association will undertake e orts to help families build crucial media literacy skills, encompassing everything from how to identify counterfeit and imitation toys, to how to safely navigate everything from social media to online ads, scams, and more.

e Toy Association collaborated on proposed revisions to the ASTM F963 toy safety standard; balloting by ASTM will occur in early 2023 with publication of the new standard occurring soon a er. Proposed revisions include updates to the sections on acoustics, battery accessibility, expanding materials, heavy metals, projectiles, and alignment with the CPSIA on tracking labels and phthalates. As emerging issues take shape, e Toy Association will continue to address them with the F963 committee to ensure that the standard remains current with product developments and any safety issues that might arise.

On the global front, our team is expanding its involvement in the International Standards Organisation (ISO) technical committee 181, holding convenor positions for working groups covering mechanical & physical properties, age determination guidelines, interpretations and microbiological safety.

Across the U.S., our state team works day-in and day-out to defeat or amend measures related to priority issues. Last year, we monitored 1,400 pieces of legislation potentially impacting toys, including nearly 100 chemical regulation bills in 22 states. We successfully amended a California measure regulating PFAS in textiles, to remove an onerous provision the would have required manufacturers of textile products to publish certi cates of compliance for each product on the manufacturer’s website. is is far from an exhaustive list of our team’s aggressive role in pushing back on legislative threats and managing regulatory a airs on behalf of members and the industry at large. I encourage anyone with questions, insight, or in need of guidance to reach out. We welcome company participation in any one of our advocacy committees, which meet throughout the year to tackle the challenges, threats, and opportunities we all face. e more companies that participate, the more we can collectively accomplish for the betterment of all.

We tracked 400+ privacy-related bills, and worked in Connecticut and Utah to ensure COPPA (the Children’s Online Protection Privacy Act) was included in broad consumer privacy measures in those states. We also secured amendments that our members requested to key de nitions in California’s Design Code Bill and other priority changes to increase industry input to the advisory committee and ensure privacy impact assessments are held con dential.

Concerning environmental issues, 30 states considered measures for new packaging and/or product Extended Producer Responsibility. Our team worked with coalition partners to improve the packaging EPR measures that passed in Colorado and California; we also secured key amendments to the “Responsible Battery Recycling Act of 2022” to ensure the battery manufacturer, not the product manufacturer, is responsible for the fees and participation in a stewardship program.

Our work and responsibilities extend far beyond U.S. borders as we tackle issues in 21 countries, including Canada, the European Union, Chile, the Gulf States (including UAE and Saudi Arabia), India, Indonesia, Israel, and several other nations important to the future of the industry.

Ed Desmond is Executive Vice President of External A airs at the Toy Association. He can be reached at edesmond@toyassociation.org.