Call for global game rules in ‘toy town’

Date: 08/05/1997

By Leyla Linton

NAME one other industry where European manufacturers are calling for more Chinese imports.

Europe's toymakers were unhappy when the European Commission introduced quotas three years ago on the grounds that they were necessary to protect jobs.

They are delighted now that the Commission has indicated its intention to liberalise quotas for the import of components, possibly within a year.

“The industry argued that quotas were not necessary. They were a hindrance to the growth of the toy industry as a whole,” explains Graham Benison, chairman of Toy Industries in Europe (TIE), an umbrella group representing toy manufacturers.

He argues that the policy did not succeed in its aim of protecting smaller toymakers from the big players. Large manufacturers were not hit by the quotas because they simply sourced their products from other countries, such as Thailand, where labour was equally cheap.

Benison highlights the way in which the quotas were focused on China. “We believe it was a negotiating tool to talk to China about human rights within the whole World Trade Organisation round of discussions,” he says.

Advertising, particularly television commercials, is another important issue for European toymakers. The industry has to contend with different rules on advertisements targeted at children in every EU country, ranging from very tight codes of practice to near self-regulation.

TIE is pushing for self-regulation across the whole of Europe and has drawn up its own code.

“It would be beneficial to everyone if we could persuade all jurisdictions to adopt the same code,” says Benison, who nevertheless acknowledges that it will be a long time before this happens, and add: “Strangely, in some respects, advertising seems to be an even more emotive subject than toy safety.”

Currently advertisers have to shoot lots of extra film footage to splice different versions of the same commercial to cope with the disharmonised rules across Europe. This is very expensive.

TIE insists that advertising is harmless, both sociologically and psychologically. “Children are much more critical of toy advertising than their parents,” says Benison.

The organisation is also campaigning for tougher action at member state and Union level to combat the counterfeiting of toys.

“The trading standards officers in the UK and their equivalents in France are very tough on this. Unfortunately, this is not true in all parts of Europe, so a counterfeit product can come into the EU somewhere in southern Europe and once it is in, it can spread all over the place. There are also a great many counterfeit products coming into the EU from eastern Europe,” says Benison.

The toy sector is increasingly becoming a global business, characterised by mergers and acquisitions. This, says Benison, is both a good and a bad thing.

“It is bad in that it ostensibly reduces the choice that a retailer has in terms of stocking his shop, but having said that, if some products fall out, it gives an opportunity for someone to come in and fill those gaps. It has really changed. People are afraid of change, because they do not understand it.”

TIE is itself the result of a merger last month of Toy Manufacturers of Europe (TME) and the European Federation of Toy Industries (FEJ). TME's turnover used to represent about 75-80&percent; of toys made or marketed in Europe.

“It is true to say that we looked at each other suspiciously, feeling that one organisation represented the big boy and the other the little boys,” says Benison, who stresses that there is now strong consensus within TIE.

In the past few years the toy market has been static. “That is because birth rates have continued to fall and there has been much more competing for the pound, deutschemark or franc in Mum or Dad's pocket,” explains Benison.

And while the classic toys such as Barbie, Action Man or Lego are as popular as ever, parents are now just as likely to treat their kids to new trainers or a burger at McDonalds.

The age at which children are “lost to the market” - that is, when they grow out of toys and move into merchandising, CD players or Walkmans - is falling. Toys used to be aimed at four to 14 year olds. Now the upper limit is more likely to be ten.

But Benison remains optimistic about the future.

“It is an exceedingly competitive market. Having said that, the toy industry is extremely innovative. We are very much allied to the entertainments industry and I think the future for the toy industry overall is good.”