A number of consumer warnings have been issued in the UK media in recent days as parents and pupils prepare for World Book Day, taking place on Thursday 1 March later this week.
The warnings have been issued following last week’s raid on an eBayer’s home address, where trading standards seized more than 3,000 counterfeit costumes.
Parents have been warned that fake fancy dress costumes are not subjected to the same rigorous testing as genuine items and as such can pose a public safety risk to their children.
City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has urged parents to make sure the costumes they buy are genuine and not to put their children’s safety at stake. The latest campaign sees the unit warning the public that ‘there’s more at stake when it’s a fake’.
“World Book Day is an exciting opportunity for children to become their favourite characters, and we want them to be able to do this safely,” said Detective Inspector Nicholas Court.
“Fake fancy dress costumes could put children at risk of serious harm from flammable materials as they do not go through any rigorous testing.”
Risks could involve burns from flammable materials, suffocation, poisoning from untested dyes and strangulation due to inappropriate fastenings.
The danger of poor quality children’s costumes was first bought to the public’s attention when Claudia Winkleman’s daughter was badly burned after her Halloween costume caught fire in 2014.
