The EU's New Toy Safety Regulation: What It Means for Creators Reviewing and Unboxing Children's Toys

Short answer: the duties sit with the manufacturer, importer and distributor — not the creator

The EU's new Toy Safety Regulation ((EU) 2025/2509) sharply tightens safety requirements for toys and introduces CE marking and a digital product passport as a legal duty for the manufacturer, importer and distributor — not for the influencer or creator making a sponsored review or unboxing of the product. The regulation entered into force on 1 January 2026, but most of the new requirements only apply from 1 August 2030, after a 54-month transition period during which the old Toy Safety Directive (2009/48/EC) can still be used. What can hit a creator's own content directly is something else: if the toy is sold through an online marketplace with non-compliant product information, a link to that listing can now count as "illegal content" under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).

This is practical guidance from Make Influence, not legal advice. Use it to understand what the regulation changes and who it obligates — get the specific legal assessment of your own product and campaign from a lawyer.

What is the EU's Toy Safety Regulation, and why does it replace 2009/48/EC?

Regulation (EU) 2025/2509 on the safety of toys was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 26 November 2025 and published in the Official Journal of the EU on 12 December 2025. It replaces the earlier Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC — and the difference between a directive and a regulation isn't just formal: a directive first has to be transposed into national law in each member state, while a regulation applies directly and identically across the EU from its application date, with no Danish legislation as a middle step.

The central changes are three: a digital product passport (DPP) replaces the previous EU declaration of conformity as the document proving a toy is safe; the chemical requirements in Annex II, Part III are significantly tightened; and the law explicitly widens the definition of "toy" to also cover connected/digital toy products that weren't as clearly covered by the 2009 directive.

Key dates: entry into force, application and the transition period

The exact dates are cross-checked directly on EUR-Lex (adoption and publication dates) and cross-confirmed by several independent compliance advisors (including Noerr, SGS and Eurofins), all of whom state 1 January 2026 as the entry-into-force date and 1 August 2030 as the general-application date — consistent with the EU's usual practice that a regulation enters into force 20 days after publication.

What actually changes for the toy itself

Source: the European Commission's own publication of the regulation text, plus independent technical reviews from testing laboratories CIRS Group and Eurofins, both of which have reviewed Annex II, Part III's wording directly.

Who carries liability in the chain — and where does a creator stand?

The regulation defines responsibility through an operator chain, the same way as the EU's other product legislation (see also who's liable for a defective product an influencer recommended? for the equivalent logic under the Product Liability Directive):

A creator making a sponsored review or unboxing of a toy doesn't normally manufacture, import or distribute the product itself — and so, as a baseline, falls outside this chain, exactly the same way an influencer who simply recommends a product isn't liable under the Product Liability Directive. There's one situation where that changes, though: the manufacturer definition above explicitly captures anyone who "markets [the toy] under that person's name or trademark" — precisely the same logic as the "apparent manufacturer" rule in Article 8 of the Product Liability Directive. A creator whose own name ends up on a toy line in a co-branded collaboration can therefore become the legal manufacturer under the Toy Safety Regulation, with the full CE marking and product passport responsibility that comes with it — regardless of whether a third-party company actually designed and manufactured the toy.

Online marketplaces, the DSA and "illegal content" — relevant to Temu, Shein and AliExpress hauls

The regulation includes a provision directly relevant to any creator making haul videos with toys bought on an international marketplace: information referring to an offer of toys on an online marketplace that doesn't comply with the Toy Safety Regulation must be considered "illegal content" within the meaning of the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065). Providers of online marketplaces also have to design their interface so that CE marking, relevant warnings and a link to the digital product passport are visible to the consumer before a purchase is made — and, like under the GPSR, they carry an independent duty to cooperate on effective recalls of toys sold through the platform. See what happens to an influencer campaign when the product gets recalled? for the same mechanic under the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR).

This provision doesn't reach a creator's own content directly — it regulates the marketplace's listing, not a creator's video about the product. But it's a good indication of where enforcement focus sits: an already-documented investigation from the Belgian consumer organisation Test Achats (together with German and Swedish sister organisations) tested 162 products bought on Temu and Shein and found that 112 of them (roughly 70%) failed to meet EU safety requirements — with most failures in exactly the children's products and electronics categories. See Temu and Shein's affiliate and creator programs for that full figure and the broader brand safety context on the two marketplaces.

What it means in practice for a creator making sponsored toy content

Decision framework: what to check before running a toy campaign

IF your brand sends toy samples out to creators for review or unboxing → confirm the product already has the necessary safety documentation in place, regardless of whether it's before or after 1 August 2030 — the rule that a free sample counts as placing the product on the market already applies today under GPSR.

IF you're planning a co-branded toy line with a creator's name on the product → clarify specifically who carries the manufacturer responsibility under the Toy Safety Regulation — it isn't automatically your manufacturing partner if the creator's name is what the consumer sees on the box.

IF a campaign involves a link to a toy on an international marketplace → know the documented compliance risk for that specific marketplace, and weigh it as part of an ordinary brand safety review.

IF you're a toy manufacturer or importer planning campaigns towards 2030 → build the DPP and CE requirements into your production and launch planning early, rather than waiting until the transition period is about to run out.

Worked example: how much runway is actually left before the mandatory deadline? (illustrative)

The figures below are a simple, illustrative count based on the confirmed dates — not a forecast for any specific product or campaign.

Counting from today (26 August 2026) to the general application date of 1 August 2030, just under 4 years of the transition period remain. If a brand is planning a major toy campaign for the 2030 Christmas shopping season — with partnership agreements, content production and creator briefs typically locked in 6-12 months in advance — that means, in practice, the real "safe" window to get a product range converted to the new requirements without time pressure is already under 3 years from today, not the nearly 4 years the deadline date alone might suggest.

Make Influence's operational perspective

In our experience, this kind of product-specific EU regulation is typically overlooked by a brand's marketing department, because it looks like a purely procurement or production matter. But for a campaign built around toys — sponsored unboxings, holiday gift guides, co-branded product lines — we recommend that compliance status (CE marking today, the plan for the digital product passport heading into 2030) become a standing item in the creator brief, alongside the other points in an influencer contract — particularly because a free product sample already counts, legally, as placing the product on the market today.

FAQ

Does an influencer have to handle CE marking or a digital product passport themselves if they review a toy?

No. That duty sits with the manufacturer, importer or distributor of the toy — not with whoever reviews or shows off the product, unless the creator's own name or trademark is put on the product itself.

Do the new requirements already apply now, or can brands wait?

The regulation has entered into force (1 January 2026), but the consumer-facing requirements — CE marking under the new rules, the digital product passport and the tightened chemical requirements — only apply from the general application date, 1 August 2030. Until then, toys compliant with the old directive can still be sold lawfully.

What happens if a creator promotes a toy from a marketplace that later turns out to be non-compliant?

The Toy Safety Regulation targets the marketplace's own obligation (the listing can be classified as illegal content under the DSA), not the creator's content directly. But a documented product safety risk on that type of marketplace should feed into an ordinary brand safety review before the campaign is built.

Can a creator become the legal "manufacturer" of a piece of toy?

Yes, if the creator's own name or trademark is put on a co-branded toy product, they can be treated as the legal manufacturer under the regulation's own manufacturer definition — with the full CE marking and product passport responsibility. This should always be clarified explicitly in the contract with the actual manufacturer.

Is this different from the general product safety rules (GPSR)?

Yes. GPSR is the general product safety regulation, applying to almost all consumer products that don't have a more specific rule. The Toy Safety Regulation is a specific rule for toys and takes precedence over GPSR's general rules on the points it regulates itself — but GPSR's rules on, among other things, recalls still apply alongside it on what the Toy Safety Regulation doesn't itself cover.

Should a brand wait to send toy samples to creators until the new rules fully apply?

No — and that's actually an argument for being extra careful already: GPSR and equivalent product legislation already treat a free sample sent to an influencer as placing the product on the market today, which means the underlying safety documentation has to be in place before the sample is sent — independent of when the Toy Safety Regulation's own 2030 requirements take effect.