Limited review of the toys containing lead and other elements mandatory safety standard

Overview

The ACCC invites you to have your say on the proposed updates to the mandatory standard for toys containing lead and other elements.

The mandatory standard (Trade Practices Act 1974 - Consumer Protection Notice No. 1 of 2009 – Consumer Product Safety Standard: Lead and Certain Elements in Children’s Toys) sets the maximum migration limit for certain elements in toys and finger paints and provides specific guidelines on how to test for lead and other elements in children's toys and finger paints.

The mandatory standard applies to children's toys and finger paints that are supplied new and designed (or clearly intended) for use in play by children who are up to 6 years old. It excludes sporting goods, camping goods, bicycles, home and playground equipment, trampolines, electronic game units, models powered by combustion or steam engines, and fashion jewellery for children.

About this review

We are conducting a limited review of the toys containing lead and other elements mandatory standard (the mandatory standard). The purpose of this limited review is to:

• increase compliance options by referencing appropriate voluntary Australian and overseas standards that provide an equivalent or better level of safety
• determine if adding dynamic references is appropriate - so updates to referenced voluntary standards flow through to the mandatory standard.

Significant changes such as altering the scope of the mandatory standard or other major requirements (such as performance measures) are not being considered in this review. These may be considered in a future comprehensive review.

In this consultation, we have outlined voluntary standards that we are seeking views as to whether they could be suitable compliance options in the mandatory standard.

We welcome your feedback on the options listed in this consultation.

You can read more about the reforms to the mandatory standard framework and limited reviews on the ACCC Product Safety website.

How to make a submission

Interested parties are invited to comment on this consultation.

Submissions are due by Friday 12 December 2025.

This consultation should take about 20 minutes to complete. You can save your answers and return at any time to complete your submission. You do not need to complete all questions to make a valid submission.

You will be able to provide supporting documentation (if required) at the end of the consultation.

We prefer interested parties respond to the questions using the online survey linked at the bottom of this page.

If you are unable to make your submission through the ACCC Consultation Hub, you can post or email your submission to:

Director
Standards Reform Team
Consumer Product Safety Division
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
GPO Box 3131 Canberra ACT 2601

Email: ProductSafety.Regulation@accc.gov.au

If you are emailing or posting your submission, please include your name, organisation (if any) and contact details when making a submission.

Our preference is for submissions to be in electronic format (such as MS Word or PDF) that is text searchable and allows a ‘copy and paste’ function.

Publication of submissions

All submissions will be treated as public documents and published on the ACCC Consultation Hub, in accordance with the ACCC’s Information Policy, unless otherwise requested.

Any parties wishing to submit commercial-in-confidence material should clearly mark it as such and submit both a public version and commercial-in-confidence version of their submission, with reasons explaining why it is confidential. More information about the ACCC’s treatment of confidential information can be found in the ACCC’s Information Policy.

Next steps after consultation

We will review submissions and determine our recommendation to the Minister about updating the mandatory standard.

We may consult with stakeholders again before the mandatory standard is finalised and will publish the outcome of this limited review on the ACCC Product Safety website.

Accessibility

If you have any difficulty accessing any of the information on this page, please refer to our website’s accessibility information. Alternatively, contact us by email at ProductSafety.Regulation@accc.gov.au or phone 1300 302 502 Monday to Friday between 11:00 am to 3:00 pm AEDT.