All Products Sold in India Required to Have Certification Marking as of Sept. 1

india-flagAugust 25, 2020 | The Toy Association is alerting members of a new order in India requiring all products sold in the country to have a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) conformity marking as of September 1, 2020.

Despite significant advocacy efforts by The Toy Association and industry partners, a BIS guidance manual was released last week. Information received by The Toy Association indicates that products without the BIS mark cannot be sold in the country – including those manufactured prior to September 1.

The problematic guidance has several aggravating factors:

  1. The label needs to be printed on the primary packaging and cannot be applied with a sticker.

  2. The QC order requires factory audits, and BIS does not know how its officers will travel overseas with global travel restricted due to the pandemic. (In normal circumstances, the audit would take about five months to complete).

  3. Only three of the 15 accredited labs in India are running normally and will be responsible for testing all the SKUs for the entire industry.

  4. Although the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has not made an official comment on what will happen with the products already on store shelves, reliable sources have told The Toy Association that the department expects all products currently at retail without a BIS marking to be removed from sale.

“The Toy Association continues to seek a transition period for enforcement of the QC order, but since the primary (but unspoken) goal of the order is to restrict Chinese imports, this is proving to be difficult,” said Alan Kaufman, senior vice president of technical affairs at The Toy Association. “We will continue to work on behalf of our members to ensure that their innovative toys and games aren’t unnecessarily pulled from store shelves and that they can continue to sell their products in India.”

Members will be kept apprised of developments. In the meantime, questions may be directed to Alan Kaufman.