{"id":373179,"date":"2025-12-26T14:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T14:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/373179\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T14:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T14:52:16","slug":"city-beach-fined-14m-for-selling-unlawful-toys-accessories-with-non-compliant-button-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/373179\/","title":{"rendered":"City Beach fined $14m for selling \u2018unlawful\u2019 toys, accessories with non-compliant button batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Popular surf and skate shop City Beach has been hit with a huge fine after selling \u201dunlawful\u201d toys and accessories for children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fashion retailer Fewstone, trading as City Beach, was ordered by the Federal Court to pay $14 million in penalties for selling products containing non-compliant button batteries, the ACCC<\/a> said earlier this week<\/p>\n

The products included popular Christmas<\/a> stocking fillers, including toys, digital notepads, keyrings, lights and light-up Jibbitz accessories for Crocs shoes.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Many of these products were marketed or intended for children.<\/p>\n

Button batteries are dangerous<\/a> and pose a significant risk to young children if swallowed or inserted.<\/p>\n

If swallowed, a button battery can become stuck in a child\u2019s throat and result in serious lifelong injuries or death.<\/p>\n

\"CityCity Beach hit with $14 million fine for selling dangerous toys and accessories for children. Credit: Instagram\/CityBeach<\/p>\n

The ACCC commenced Federal Court proceedings<\/a> against City Beach in April 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Beach admitted that, between June 2022 and October 2024, it had supplied products that did not comply with the button battery safety standard on more than 54,000 occasions,\u201d the ACCC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the same period it had supplied products that did not comply with the button battery information standard on more than 56,000 occasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Beach\u2019s unlawful conduct put more than 50,000 young children at risk of severe injury or death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court described the retailer\u2019s \u201clack of urgency in seeking to recall the non-compliant products\u201d as \u201ccondemnable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s penalty sends clear message to businesses and suppliers that failing to meet safety standards for button batteries is unacceptable and can result in serious penalties,\u201d ACCC Commissioner Luke Woodward said.<\/p>\n

\u201cButton batteries pose a significant risk to children, and can be fatal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ACCC will not hesitate to take strong enforcement action against businesses that fail to comply with the button battery standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

On December 12, the court found City Beach breached Australian Consumer Law<\/a> by selling a range of consumer novelty products that did not comply with mandatory button battery safety and information standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court ordered an injunction restraining City Beach from engaging in future contraventions of the Mandatory Standards,\u201d the ACCC said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court also ordered City Beach to implement a consumer law compliance program and to undertake advertising as part of its voluntary recall of the products in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a contested hearing on penalties, City Beach was ordered to pay penalties totalling $14 million.<\/p>\n

The dangers of button batteries <\/p>\n

The ACCC<\/a> issued the fine due to the danger of button batteries which can cause serious harm to children if swallowed.<\/p>\n

Insertion into body parts such as the ears or nose can also lead to serious injuries.<\/p>\n

In Australia, at least three children have died from inserting or ingesting button batteries. Children up to five years of age are at greatest risk of injury from button batteries.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s mandatory button battery standards<\/a>, which came into effect in June 2022, aim to reduce the risk of death or serious injury caused by button batteries.<\/p>\n

The safety standard requires products to have secure battery compartments that are designed to be resistant to being opened by children.<\/p>\n

This is to prevent children from gaining access to button batteries.<\/p>\n

The information standard requires safety warnings to be provided with products, including seeking urgent medical advice in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Popular surf and skate shop City Beach has been hit with a huge fine after selling \u201dunlawful\u201d toys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,14001,1625,44,16217,12805,7240],"class_list":["post-373179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-child-care","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-real-life","tag-recalls","tag-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}