On 31 January 2012, the EU’s Official Journal published Decision 2012/53/EU of the European Commission, extending the validity of Decision 2006/502/EC which instituted a ban on the sale of cigarette lighters that are not child resistant, and also on novelty lighters. The Decision of 2006 will therefore continue to apply for another year, i.e., until 11 May 2013.
Hong Kong’s marketers of lighters that fall within this Decision are by now probably well aware of its legal ramifications. While the lighters must be child resistant according to specific standards, novelty lighters – i.e., lighters which resemble objects that are particularly attractive to children, including cartoon animal characters, musical notes, items of food and toys – continue to be prohibited on the EU market.
Hong Kong businesses will recall that the ban on the placing on the market and import of non-child resistant lighters and of novelty lighters was introduced by the Commission Decision of 2006 and took effect on 11 March 2007 for an initial period of one year. With effect from 11 May 2008, the ban was extended to also prohibit sales to consumers. Such ban was then prolonged until 11 May 2011. With this latest measure, the ban will now be in effect until 11 May 2013, after which it may well be renewed again.
As Hong Kong’s cigarette lighter exporters will likely be aware, a lighter is considered to be child resistant if it is designed and manufactured in such a way that it cannot, under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions, be operated by children that are younger than 51 months of age.
Lighters which comply with European standard EN 13869:2002 (a standard which establishes child resistance specifications for lighters) are presumed to be in conformity with Decision 2006/502/EC. Conformity is also presumed for lighters that are in compliance with the child resistance requirements of non-EU countries, if these are equivalent to the requirements of the 2006 Decision (such as the rules applicable in the US).
As a condition for placing lighters on the market in the EU, Hong Kong’s EU importers have to keep and provide the competent authorities of the Member States, upon their request, with a report of a child resistance test from a recognised testing body which certifies the child resistance of the lighter model concerned. The Member States’ competent authorities will continue to check whether lighter models sold in the EU are child resistant and can require Hong Kong’s EU importers to submit production records showing that all lighters produced conform to the tested model.
A matter that will continue to be of particular concern to Hong Kong’s exporters is that the child resistance requirement primarily affects disposable plastic lighters and low-cost metal lighters. Refillable lighters which meet the following criteria are not covered by this requirement, as they are believed not to be so easily accessible to children:
- the refillable lighter must be designed to last for at least five years, subject to repair;
- the lighter must benefit from a producer’s written guarantee of at least two years;
- it must be practically possible to repair and safely refill the lighter during its lifetime and, in particular, the ignition mechanism must be repairable;
- it must be possible to have the parts of the lighter that are not consumable replaced or repaired by an authorised or specialised after-sales service centre based in the EU.
Novelty lighters, i.e., lighters that resemble objects that are especially appealing to children, are banned without exception.
The Commission has justified the need to once again prolong the ban on non-child resistant and novelty lighters by the absence of other satisfactory measures addressing the child safety of lighters. Hong Kong’s exports of such items will therefore continue to face checks carried out by the competent authorities of the Member States to ensure that only lighters which are specifically designed to be child resistant are placed on the market and sold in the EU and that no novelty lighters are sold.
Commission Decision 2012/53/EU, adopted on 27 January 2012, can be accessed at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:027:0024:0024:EN:PDF
