Product Compliance

In five weeks, China replaces its entire toy safety standard: the new chemical limits bind only toys sold there, but few factories keep a separate recipe for the ones that are not

On 5 October 2025, China's SAMR and SAC published GB 6675.1-2025 through GB 6675.4-2025, replacing the 2014-edition toy safety standard. The new standard, and the revised CCC certification rules issued by CNCA on 29 May 2026, both become mandatory on 1 November 2026 for every toy sold in China, adding limits for more than ten additional hazardous substances plus new electromagnetic and electrical requirements. Toys already made under the old standard may sell through 31 October 2027. The standard legally binds only China's domestic market, but few contract factories keep a separate, lower-spec formulation running for the same mold once a domestic customer forces a reformulation, so the deadline reaches further than its own legal scope suggests.

Naomie HaliouaCDO and co-founder 29 September 2026 · 6 min read

What actually changes on 1 November

GB 6675.1-2025 through GB 6675.4-2025 replace, part for part, the 2014-edition standards that have governed toy safety in China for over a decade. The revision is largely aligned with the international ISO 8124 series but adds a number of China-specific requirements that go beyond it. GB 6675.4-2025 alone introduces limits for more than ten additional hazardous substances, among them boron, formaldehyde, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) and short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), on top of the azo-dye and polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbon limits already in scope. GB 6675.1-2025 adds, for the first time in this standard, electromagnetic-property requirements for electronic and connected toys, a new electrical-safety threshold for toys with a working voltage above 24V, and dedicated requirements for realistic food-imitating toys. None of this is optional guidance: every toy inside the scope of China Compulsory Certification must be tested and certified against the new parts to be placed on the Chinese market from 1 November 2026.

The certification procedure moved on a parallel, linked timeline. CNCA-C22-02:2026, the revised Trial Implementation Rules for Compulsory Product Certification of Toys, sets out the competence requirements for certification bodies and laboratories, the applicable toy safety standards (the GB 6675 series and GB/T 19865), and the certification procedure itself, covering type testing, factory inspection, product consistency checks, certificate issuance and post-certification surveillance. Between 29 May and 31 October 2026, certification bodies may process an application under either the old or the revised Trial Implementation Rules, at the applicant's choice. From 1 November 2026, every new CCC application for a toy must follow the revised rules and be tested against the new GB 6675-2025 standard; the two transition clocks, the standard itself and the procedure used to certify against it, run out on the same day.

Three details behind the 1 November deadline

Four parts, one deadline

GB 6675.1 through .4 replace the 2014 standard as a single package: chemical, electrical and mechanical requirements all become mandatory together on 1 November 2026.

A one-year sell-through, not a one-year exemption

Toys already manufactured or imported under the 2014 standard before 1 November 2026 may still be sold until 31 October 2027. A fresh order placed for delivery after that date is not covered.

The legal scope stops at China’s CCC market

GB 6675-2025 binds toys placed on the Chinese domestic market under CCC. It does not, on paper, reach a toy the same factory makes only for export.

5 Oct 2025

SAMR and SAC publish GB 6675.1-2025 through GB 6675.4-2025, replacing the 2014-edition toy safety standards.

29 May 2026

CNCA issues Announcement No. 8 of 2026, publishing revised Trial Implementation Rules for CCC toy certification, CNCA-C22-02:2026; the transition window opens.

1 Nov 2026

GB 6675-2025 and the revised CCC implementation rules both become mandatory; every new certificate must be issued under them.

31 Oct 2027

Last day toys manufactured or imported under the old 2014 standard before 1 November 2026 may still be sold in China.

The numbers behind the deadline

One number is how long brands have left. One is how long a sell-through window actually protects existing stock. The third is the scale of the chemical-limit expansion driving the retesting itself.

5 weeks

remaining from today, 29 September 2026, to the 1 November 2026 date GB 6675-2025 and the revised CCC toy certification rules both become mandatory

12 months

the sell-through window for toys already manufactured or imported under the old 2014 standard, which may be sold until 31 October 2027 but covers no order placed after 1 November 2026

10+

additional hazardous substances, among them boron, formaldehyde, TVOC and short-chain chlorinated paraffins, now limited for the first time under GB 6675.4-2025

The real subject: a domestic Chinese rule, running through a supply chain that rarely keeps two recipes

Most coverage of GB 6675-2025 reads as a checklist for brands selling toys in China: new chemical limits, new electromagnetic requirements, recertify by 1 November. That framing is accurate but incomplete, because it treats the standard's legal scope as the whole story. China Compulsory Certification binds toys placed on China's own domestic market; a toy the same factory manufactures purely for a brand in the EU or the US, never sold in China, falls outside CCC and outside GB 6675-2025 on paper. In practice, few contract toy factories run two separate bills of materials for one mold. A single production line making the same plastic figure for a Chinese retailer and a Western brand typically draws from the same resin batch, the same plasticizer supplier and the same paint formulation, because maintaining a parallel, lower-spec recipe purely for export SKUs adds cost and handling risk that most factories will not carry indefinitely once their domestic customers force a reformulation. When a factory's domestic buyers push it to meet GB 6675.4-2025's new boron, TVOC and short-chain-chlorinated-paraffin limits, the practical result is frequently a single reformulated compound used across every customer's orders, whether or not that customer's own products ever cross into China. A brand with zero revenue in China can end up shipping a materially different product after 1 November 2026 without any Chinese regulation ever having applied to it directly.

Why it matters for brands

Three groups should read past the recertification headline. First, any brand selling toys in China needs every affected SKU tested and CCC-certified against GB 6675.1 through .4 before 1 November 2026, coordinated with a certification body that can still process an application under the transition rules; waiting until the deadline itself risks a testing-capacity crunch at labs handling the same rush for every other toy brand in the market. Second, brands that manufacture in China but do not sell there should not assume the standard is irrelevant: the practical question is not whether GB 6675-2025 applies to their contract, but whether their supplier reformulates the shared production line anyway, which means asking the factory directly whether the bill of materials for their SKU is changing, rather than relying on the standard's legal scope to answer that question. Third, brands managing existing inventory need to separate two situations that look identical on a purchase order: stock already manufactured or imported under the old 2014 standard before 1 November 2026, which is protected by the sell-through window to 31 October 2027, and a reorder of the same SKU for delivery after that date, which needs fresh certification under the new standard regardless of how the earlier batch was certified. Confirming which situation applies to a given shipment is a bill-of-materials and certification-date question, not a matter of guessing from the product's name or its last test report.

Two ways to read the 1 November deadline

The narrow read

From 1 November 2026, toys sold in China need new CCC certification against GB 6675-2025, with a one-year sell-through window for existing stock.

The structural read

A rule that legally binds only China's domestic toy market travels further than its own scope, because a factory reformulating one production line to meet it rarely keeps a separate, lower-spec version running for customers who never sell there.

Sources & references

Frequently asked questions

What exactly changes for toys sold in China on 1 November 2026?

GB 6675.1-2025 through GB 6675.4-2025 become mandatory, replacing the 2014-edition toy safety standard, and every toy within the scope of China Compulsory Certification must be tested and certified against them. The revised parts add limits for more than ten additional hazardous substances, including boron, formaldehyde, TVOC and short-chain chlorinated paraffins, plus new electromagnetic-property requirements for electronic and connected toys and a new threshold for toys with a working voltage above 24V. The certification procedure itself, CNCA-C22-02:2026, also becomes mandatory on the same date.

Does GB 6675-2025 apply to toys my brand manufactures in China but does not sell there?

Not directly: China Compulsory Certification, and the GB 6675-2025 standard it enforces, binds toys placed on China's own domestic market, not export-only production. In practice, though, factories rarely keep a separate, lower-spec bill of materials for export SKUs once their domestic customers force a reformulation on a shared production line. Brands that manufacture in China without selling there should confirm directly with their supplier whether the product's formulation is changing, rather than assuming the standard's legal scope settles the question.

What happens to toys already certified and manufactured under the old 2014 standard?

Toys manufactured or imported under the old 2014-edition standard before 1 November 2026 may continue to be sold in China until 31 October 2027. That window covers existing stock only: a new order for the same SKU, placed for delivery after 1 November 2026, needs fresh testing and certification under GB 6675-2025 and CNCA-C22-02:2026 regardless of how the earlier batch was certified.

Sources

Note on verification: this session's network access allows search but blocks direct page retrieval from samr.gov.cn, cnca.gov.cn and every testing-and-certification domain cited above. The standard numbers, GB 6675.1-2025 through GB 6675.4-2025, their 5 October 2025 publication date, the 1 November 2026 effective date and the 31 October 2027 sell-through deadline were confirmed through search-indexed excerpts of the standards themselves, cross-checked against independent summaries from SGS, Eurofins, UL Solutions and CMA Testing, all of which state the same dates. CNCA Announcement No. 8 of 2026, its 29 May 2026 issue date and the CNCA-C22-02:2026 implementation rules were confirmed through two independent sources, UL Solutions and cisema, whose accounts of the announcement and its transition window agree. The count of more than ten additional hazardous substances under GB 6675.4-2025 is Eurofins' own figure, corroborated by SGS's and China-certification.com's descriptions of the same chemical-safety expansion. Where a figure or claim could not be cross-checked across at least two independent sources, it has been left out of this article.