Reinforced role of European standards in the context of the new Directive 2024/2853 on liability for defective products

The new Directive 2024/2853 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2024 on liability for defective products. This Directive ensures coherence and consistency with product safety (#GPSR and New Legislative Framework Directives and Regulations - most of them so called CE marking legislation) and market surveillance legislation at Union and national level.

The Directive introduces a new concept, "presumption of defectiveness", and gives tools to defend citizens and consumers that suffer damage from a #defective (and #unsafe) product.

European and International standards, in particular those supporting the application of mandatory requirements under Union legislation, have a more apparent role in giving legal certainty to manufacturers or other economic operators that provide safe and quality products in the EU market.

SMEs now have even more arguments for using European Standards to support the safety of their products.

In addition, alignment with Decision 768/2012 on the framework for the marketing of products, as well as considering software, operating systems, firmware, computer products, applications or AI systems having an implication on product safety: A developer or producer of software, including AI system providers should be treated as a manufacturer.

Moreover, warnings or other information provided with a product cannot be considered sufficient to make an otherwise defective product safe, since defectiveness should be determined by reference to the safety that the public at large is entitled to expect.

Also eCommerce is somehow behind the revision of this directive.

Many mandatory safety requirements have been adopted in order to protect consumers and other natural persons from the risk of harm.

In order to reinforce the close relationship between product safety rules and liability rules, non-compliance with such requirements should also result in a presumption of defectiveness.

A natural person who suffers damage caused by a defective product is entitled to compensation.

A product shall be considered defective where it does not provide the safety that a person is entitled to expect or that is required under Union or national law. In assessing the defectiveness of the product, some circumstances and criteria are provided in the Directive, including relevant product safety requirements, including safety-relevant and cybersecurity requirements.

If the claimant demonstrates that the product does not comply with mandatory product safety requirements laid down in Union or national law that are intended to protect against the risk of the damage suffered by the injured person.