The toy sector is constantly innovating. Every year ushers in new products that reflect the latest societal changes, technological advances and customer expectations. As such, toy companies rely on strong intellectual property rights (and enforcement of those rights) to protect ideas and inventions.
Unfortunately, there are many rogue operators whose entire business models are based on selling copies and piggybacking on the reputations of trusted brands built year-over-year. This takes income from the innovators and gives children an inferior quality–and often unsafe–toy. Most times, fake toys do not comply with the strict toy safety and sustainability regulations put forward by the EU. In our experience, traders who do not care about IPR rules do not care about product safety rules either.
IPR infringement in the toy sector takes place on a very large scale. In 2024, of the 112 million counterfeit items seized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), 17.89% were toys. This made toys the second largest category of fake goods stopped. The sale of counterfeit toys remains one of TIE's main priorities in ensuring a safe play experience for our children.
We are a signatory of the Memorandum of Understanding on the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet–a voluntary agreement between major online platforms and rights holders. TIE continues to push for stricter enforcement of the existing anti-counterfeiting laws against the producers and facilitators.
