Case of the dolls
NZPA-Reuter Luxemburg
Britain was taken to the European Court of Justice for banning the import of inflatable sex-dolls from West Germany. In 1982, British customs officers at Heathrow Airport confiscated 490 inflatable rubber dolls and 12 “sexy vacuum flasks” under the country’s obscenity laws. Nigel Peters, a lawyer for the London firm Conegate, which imported them, told the Court there was no ban on making or selling the dolls in Britain and their seizing broke European Community laws on free traffic of goods in the group. The Community’s
Executive Commission has backed Conegate — whose case was referred by the British High Court — saying that standards to protect public morals were allowed only if they were the same for homeproduced and imported goods.
Patrick Bucknell, a lawyer for the British Government, said the dolls had been labelled “window display models,” which would have broken British indecent display laws.
“The real aim was for the dolls to be used as sex aids. I don’t know what the sexy vacuum flasks were for,” he said.
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Press, 27 January 1986, Page 15
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176Case of the dolls Press, 27 January 1986, Page 15
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