123 Mart charged over safety of children’s toys, nightwear

Media release

Issued 22 August 2016
Release no. 18

123 Mart charged over safety standard of children’s toys and nightwear

The Commerce Commission has filed 28 charges against The 123 Mart Limited (123 Mart) relating to 10 children’s toys and five clothing items it sold between April 2013 and June 2016.

123 Mart has pleaded not guilty to all of the Fair Trading Act 1986 charges. The majority of the charges (23) relate to toys, one charge relates to children’s nightwear, and four relate to other clothing.

The Commission alleges that the toys did not meet the mandatory product safety standard for children’s toys, and posed a choking hazard to children 36 months and under.

The charge relating to the children’s nightwear alleges that 123 Mart failed to attach fire danger labels to children’s sleeping pants and breached a product safety standard.

The remaining four charges allege that 123 Mart failed to attach care labelling, country of origin clothing labelling and fibre content labelling about the content of the product in breach of the consumer information standards.

123 Mart has withdrawn all the toys and clothing from sale (a full list of the items is below). Refunds are available from 123 Mart for the toys and sleeping pants if they are returned. We do not advise using these products.

Five of the toys have had a public product safety recall and the notice can be foundhere. 123 Mart has said it intends to work with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment on a public recall of the other toys and children’s sleeping pants in the immediate future.

As this matter is before the Court, the Commission cannot comment further at this time.

Background
123 Mart operates 59 retail stores throughout New Zealand specialising in low-cost consumer products including toys, costumes and cosmetics. It started operating in New Zealand in 1995 and has shops under four different brands; The 123 Mart, Dollar Store 123, King Dollar Store and Max!Out.

The Commission enforces mandatory safety standards for six products including toys and children’s nightwear.
• The Product Safety (Children’s Toys) Regulations 2005 apply (with certain exceptions) to toys manufactured, designed, labelled, or marketed for use by children up to and including 36 months of age, whether or not the toys are manufactured, designed, labelled or marketed for use by children over that age. You can read more here.
• All children’s nightwear (including some types of daywear) must carry a fire hazard label. The label provides information aimed at reducing the risk of death and injury from fire hazards. You can read more here.
The 123 Mart toys and clothing the charges relate to are below. All have been withdrawn from sale.

Toys which have been publicly recalled
• ‘My Baby Concert’ trumpet
• ‘My Baby Concert’ rattle
• ‘Toys’ wind-up snake set
• ‘The World of toys’ house set with small components
• Small ‘Magnetic letter and number’ sets
The recall notice with photos of the toys can be seen here.

Toys and sleep pants which are due to be recalled (please click link for each image)
• Dream House set
• Butterfly on a walking stick
• Fairy Doll toy
• Beaut Surprised girls dolls
• Musical Band set
• Children’s sleeping pants – no fire labelling

Clothing which it is alleged breached labelling standards
• Girl’s underwear
• Girl’s leggings
• Beanie, knitted hat, and winter hat
• ‘Moto Raincoat’ (Raincoat and legging set)
These four items are not being recalled.

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