Commission Decision of 14 July 2006 requiring Member States to take measures to ensure that only lighters which are child-resistant are placed on the market and to prohibit the placing on the market of novelty lighters (notified under documents number C(2006) 1887 and number C(2006) 1887 COR) (Text with EEA relevance) (2006/498/EC)

Article 1 U.K.

For the purposes of this Decision:

1.

‘lighter’ shall mean a manually operated flame-producing device employing a fuel, normally used for deliberately igniting in particular cigarettes, cigars and pipes, and which may foreseeably be used to ignite materials such as paper, wicks, candles and lanterns, manufactured with an integral supply of fuel, whether intended to be refuelled or not.

Without prejudice to the prohibition of the placing on the market of novelty lighters established in Article 2(2) of this Decision, this definition shall not apply to refillable lighters for which producers provide on request to the competent authorities the necessary documentation substantiating that the lighters are designed, manufactured and placed on the market such as to ensure a continual expected safe use over a lifetime of at least five years, subject to repair, and which fulfill in particular all of the following requirements:

• a written guarantee from the producer of at least two years for each lighter, in accordance with Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(1),

• the practical possibility to be repaired and safely refilled over the entire lifetime, including in particular a repairable ignition mechanism,

• Parts that are not consumable, but are likely to wear out or fail in continual use after the guarantee period, are accessible for replacement or repair by an authorised or specialised after-sales service centre based in the European Union;

2.

‘novelty lighter’ shall mean any lighter as defined in specification 3.2 of European Standard EN 13869:2002;

3.

‘child-resistant lighter’ shall mean a lighter designed and manufactured in such a way that it cannot, under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use, be operated by children younger than 51 months of age because of, for instance, the force needed to operate it or because of its design or the protection of its ignition mechanism, or the complexity or sequence of operations needed for the ignition.

Shall be presumed to be child-resistant:

(a)

lighters which conform to national standards transposing European Standard EN 13869:2002, as far as the specifications other than those in paragraphs 3.1, 3.4 and 5.2.3 of the Standard are concerned;

(b)

lighters which conform to the relevant rules of the non-EU countries where child-resistance requirements equivalent to those established by this Decision are in force.

4.

‘model of lighter’ shall mean lighters from the same producer that do not differ in design or other characteristics in any manner that may affect child-resistance;

5.

‘child-resistance test’ shall mean a systematic test of child-resistance of a given model of lighter, on a sample of the lighters considered, in particular tests made in accordance with national standards transposing European Standard EN 13869:2002, as far as the specifications other than those in paragraphs 3.1, 3.4 and 5.2.3 of the Standard are concerned, or in accordance with the testing requirements of the relevant rules of non-EU countries where child-resistance requirements equivalent to those established by this Decision are in force;

6.

‘producer’ shall have the meaning as defined in Article 2(e) of Directive 2001/95/EC;

7.

‘distributor’ shall have the meaning as defined in Article 2(f) of Directive 2001/95/EC.

(1)

OJ L 171, 7.7.1999, p. 12.