United States · Mandatory
ASTM F963
The US toy safety standard, mandatory under CPSIA. The rough counterpart to EN 71.
ASTM F963 is the American toy safety standard covering mechanical hazards, small parts, flammability, and heavy-metal limits in surface coatings and substrates. Under CPSIA it is a mandatory consumer product safety rule, so compliance requires third-party lab testing.
How it compares to EN 71
The two overlap heavily and differ in the details — small-parts cylinder dimensions, the list of restricted elements, and the treatment of sound-producing toys among them. Neither is simply "stricter". A product sold in both markets is typically tested to both, which is a reasonable signal of a manufacturer taking testing seriously.
What it does not mean
ASTM F963 covers mechanical safety, flammability and heavy metals in coatings and substrates. It does not cover the broader chemical restrictions that EU REACH applies to consumer goods, and it says nothing about how a toy was made — no labour standard, no forestry or fibre sourcing, no environmental criteria. A compliant toy can still be made from conventionally grown cotton in a factory nobody audited.
Read it yourself: the standard as published ↗
Brands citing this standard
Each row links to the source backing that brand's claim, and says how we checked it. A brand appears here only when its claim cites something.
- Green Toys Toy safety standard applicable to this category.
- LEGO DUPLO Also sold into the US market, so ASTM F963 applies there.
- PlanToys And ASTM F963 for the US market.