ECJ rules that four specific safety standards must be freely available

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/making-law-accessible-...

The important bits:

> Earlier this month, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that harmonized standards are a part of EU law, and thus must be accessible to EU citizens and residents free of charge.

> In 2018, two nonprofits, Public.Resource.Org and Right to Know, made a request to the European Commission for access to four harmonized standards—that is, standards that apply across the European Union—pertaining to the safety of toys. The Commission refused to grant them access on the grounds that the standards were copyrighted.

> Last week, the EU Court of Justice overturned the General Court decision, holding that EU citizens and residents have an overriding interest in free access to the laws that govern them.

> The request for access concerned four harmonised standards adopted by CEN, in accordance with Regulation No 1025/2012, namely, standard EN 71-5:2015, entitled ‘Safety of toys – Part 5: Chemical toys (sets) other than experimental sets’; standard EN 71‑4:2013, entitled ‘Safety of toys – Part 4: Experimental sets for chemistry and related activities’; standard EN 71‑12:2013, entitled ‘Safety of toys – Part 12: N-Nitrosamines and N-nitrosatable substances’; and standard EN 12472:2005+A 1:2009, entitled ‘Method for the simulation of wear and corrosion for the detection of nickel released from coated items’ (‘the requested harmonised standards’).

And an article that feels is mostly biased to paint it as a negative: https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2024/3/...

I didn't find any other recent publication about it. I first read the response from BSI.

I much prefer the USB approach, where manufacturers have to pay to participate in writing the standards and you have to pay a certified laboratory to verify your product meets the standards, but the standard itself is open and freely available to anyone. Rather than gatekeeping safety and compatibility it promotes innovation and experimentation instead - any hobbyist or startup can try something out without spending a fortune first.

Toy safety standards seemed an obvious candidate. Especially for younger kids and girls. And indeed, lots of fun bits turned up in such standards. Infant grip torque, pinching force, etc, etc. In paywalled "google temporarily turns up an unauthorized leak" "there's no way to link to this stuff" standards. Punted.