Last week, the BTHA team met with Suffolk Trading Standards to learn more about the work of the imports team to detect and disrupt rogue importer activity at the border. The team’s resource is focused on non-compliant and unsafe toys sold through online marketplaces. The BTHA’s data and evidence on online marketplaces plus the BTHA training provided to trading standards officers was being used to help identify unsafe toys and inform product testing.
In 2023-24, 87% of the product lines examined by the team were found to be non-compliant and unsafe. Although the team has a good success rate, there is still only limited resource which means a small percentage of the non-compliant and unsafe toys are being intercepted. This information will be used in ongoing engagement with government on new regulations for online marketplaces.
