OUT NOW – as of today, 18 November 2024, the NEW EU Product Liability Directive 2024/2853 is official!

Smart products, digitalisation and systems with artificial intelligence (AI) are new additions. And many new economic operators, as well as online trading, will be covered by strict product liability. Implementation deadline: 9 December 2026!

The new EU Product Liability Directive 2024/2853 will replace the current one from 1985.

Technological innovations in the development of digital products and services have also affected product liability. An update of European product liability law is also long overdue due to the importance of online trade and the involvement of many new economic operators in the global supply chain. The new EU Product Liability Directive attempts to close the legal gaps in existing product liability.

• New products: for the first time, software and digital products and smart devices that work with artificial intelligence (AI)
• New liability for AI and cybersecurity
• New addressees of liability and economic operators in the EU supply chain: there must always be a company based in the EU that can be held liable for a product
• Liability of the EU representative and the fulfilment service provider?
• New: data loss as compensable damage
• New point in time of ‘first making available’ of products
• Extended concept of defect: significance of later software updates on safety expectations
• Restrictions on liability exemptions for research-intensive manufacturers in the event of development risk
• Liability for significant changes: companies will be liable if they significantly modify a product outside the control of the original manufacturer and reintroduce it to the market
• New generous rules of evidence for injured parties
  • Civil procedural obligation for companies to disclose evidence – similar to the US discovery.
  • Merely refutable presumption of defect and causal link
• What is the significance for manufacturers’ product liability of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), EU Cyber-Resilience Act (CRA), EU Cyber-Security-Act?

find out more: ONL_Produkthaftungs-RL_März2025