Two Auckland toy import companies have been fined thousands of dollars each by the Commerce Commission for supplying unsafe toys.
Feel So Good Limited was fined $60,000 and Espoir Limited was fined $60,750 for both supplying toys found to be unsafe following testing by the commission. Both companies admitted they were unaware of specific requirements and safety regulations.
During testing of Feel So Good’s Ha-Ha Groan Hammer, the Commerce Commission says small parts came free from two of the three hammers tested.
Feel So Good earlier pleaded guilty to five representative charges relating to supplying 2964 units of the hammer to 52 retailers between August 2014 and December 2018. It recalled the hammer product in February 2019, after being interviewed by the commission.
When investigating Espoir, the Commerce Commission says rubber toys which contained squeakers had either come out during testing, and/or the toys were small enough to pass through a testing template. Espoir immediately recalled the products.
The company had earlier pleaded guilty to five representative charges relating to supply of about 600 rubber toy animal sets between December 2014 and December 2018.
The Commerce Commission's Stuart Wallace says it is "disappointing" that both companies admitted they had little knowledge of relevant product safety requirements, and that neither had compliance programmes in place to meet those requirements.
"The regulations are there to protect the safety of young children. We urge companies supplying toys for young children to make sure their products comply with the law. We have extensive materials to help them do so, including a set of videos with versions in Chinese and Korean."
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