Child restraints for use in motor vehicles

HS Codes include:

9401.2 Seats of a kind used in motor vehicles

9401.8 Other seats

8715 Baby carriages and parts there of

Limited review of the mandatory safety standard for Child Restraint Systems for Use in Motor Vehicles; (6 pages, in English) accessed via link below.; (6 page(s), in English)

The mandatory standard for child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles (the mandatory standard) Competition and Consumer Act 2010 - Consumer Protection Notice No. 3 of 2014 - Safety Standard: Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles, came into effect in 1978 and aims to ensure child restraints supplied in Australia have key safety features to reduce the risk of bodily injury to children in the event of a motor vehicle impact.

The mandatory standard currently references and allows compliance with any one of the 2004, 2010 or 2013 versions of the voluntary Australian standard AS/NZS 1754 Child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles with variations set out in the mandatory standard.

The ACCC is conducting a limited review of the mandatory standard. The purpose of this limited review is to seek stakeholders' views about:

·        updating the safety standard to reference and allow compliance with the 2024 version of the voluntary Australian standard AS/NZS 1754:2024 Child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles

·        whether adding dynamic references is appropriate - so updates to the referenced voluntary standard flow through to the mandatory standard

·        allowing a transition period to support industry compliance, this is because the safety standard currently references the 2004, 2010 and 2013 versions of the voluntary Australian standard.

Significant changes such as altering the scope of the mandatory standard or other major requirements (such as performance measures) are not being considered in this limited review.

The safety standard was last reviewed in 2014 and prescribes requirements for the design, construction, performance, testing and informative labelling of child restraints.

The safety standard applies to devices that reduce the risk of bodily injury to a child in the event of a motor vehicle impact and includes children's car seats, booster seats components to restrain the child with a harness, and to anchor the child restraint to the vehicle. The safety standard does not apply to motor vehicle child restraints designed for children with a disability or to items that are an integrated feature of a motor vehicle.