In dieser Videoreihe beleuchten unsere Anwälte die verschiedenen Aspekte der neuen EU-Produkthaftungsrichtlinie. In unserem Blogpost haben wir zudem die wichtigsten Änderungen zusammengefasst.
The new EU Product Liability Directive is a gamechanger for manufacturers, importers, distributors and other service providers. Watch the first of a number of short video recordings introducing the new EU product liability law. Rupert Bellinghausen deals with one of the key changes, the significant extension of the scope of covered products, economic actors and damage positions.
Anke Krause speaks about the alleviations of the burden of proof that the new Product Liability Directive introduces. In principle, the claimant continues to bear the burden of proving the defect, the damage and the causality between defectiveness and the damage. However, the new PLD effectively shifts the burden of proof to the defendants by introducing new (rebuttable) presumptions for the defect and/or causality.
Kathrin Bauwens speaks about the disclosure obligations that the new PLD introduces. Member States are required to grant claimants the right to request disclosure of evidence from respondents in the course of product liability litigation. As the disclosure provisions deeply interfere with the civil procedural law of some Member States, it remains to be seen how the Member States will transpose them to national law and how courts will apply the new rules in practice.
Alex Ferreres analyses whether the new provisions of the EU PLD will facilitate collective redress actions.
08 Juli 2024
The new Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products introduces sustainability requirements for almost all kinds of products placed on the EU market, a digital product passport, and new obligations for the handling of unsold products. For affected companies, understanding the nuances of the new rules is essential not only for compliance reasons, but also for capitalising on opportunities to innovate in product design and sustainability practices.
23 Februar 2024
The European Parliament and the Council are about to adopt a new Right to Repair Directive as part of the EU’s circular economy action plan. The new directive will impose several new obligations on sellers, manufacturers and repairers of goods to which they need to adapt their business practices.
05 Februar 2024
The EU institutions reached a political compromise on the right to repair initiative at the end of last week, thereby setting another milestone for the circular economy. Even if not all proposals by the Commission, the Parliament and the Council were approved in the trilogue negotiations, the new directive will impose a number of new obligations on sellers, manufacturers and repairers of goods to which they need to adapt their business practices.
24 Januar 2024
Almost four decades after its adoption, the EU Product Liability Directive is being completely revised. The reform was prompted by the challenges that technological progress posed to the Directive’s decades-old definitions and concepts, but it ultimately led to a fundamental reform of EU product liability law as a whole.
15 Dezember 2023
The EU Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the revision of Product Liability Directive. From the point of view of potential defendants, the amendments – including an extension of the scope of covered economic actors and products, new rules on a reduced standard for the burden of proof as well as on disclosure and longer expiry periods – are likely to change the current liability landscape significantly. They should thus prepare carefully for the new, claimant-friendly product liability regime.
05 Dezember 2023
The EU institutions reached a provisional political agreement on the so-called Ecodesign Regulation. The new regulation will introduce performance and information requirements for all kind of products placed on the EU market. It aims to make products more durable and reliable, easier to reuse, upgrade, repair and recycle, and use less resources. For that purpose, companies will be subject to far-reaching and challenging obligations such as the introduction of an EU digital product passport and new obligations for the handling of unsold products.
23 November 2023
The EU Parliament and the Council each adopted their negotiating positions on the right to repair initiative this week. Both institutions call for changes to the Commission's proposal, but in different ways. Although the upcoming trilogue negotiations thus promise to be complicated, the new provisions are likely to be adopted during this legislative period. Irrespective of their final version and their transposition into national law, the new rules will impose new obligations on companies involved in the production, sale or repair of goods.
30 März 2023
The EU Commission’s right to repair initiative aims to promote the repair of goods and to strengthen consumer rights in case of defective products, but the proposed directive will also lead to additional obligations for companies active in the production, sale or repair of goods.
29 September 2022
The Commission adopted two proposals to adapt liability rules to the digital age, circular economy and the impact of global value chains. It proposes to modernise the existing rules on strict liability of manufacturers for defective products through a newly drafted Product Liability Directive and suggests a targeted harmonisation of national liability rules, facilitating compensation for damages caused by AI-driven products. Should the – extremely claimant friendly – proposals be implemented, the entire European product liability regime will change drastically.
08 April 2022
On 30 March 2022, the EU Commission published the first part of its Circular Economy Package to make sustainable products the norm. In line with one of the key priorities of the Green Deal to empower consumers for the green transition, the set of measures contains a proposal to enhance durability and reparability of products and to tackle greenwashing and early obsolescence through amendments of existing EU legislation, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Consumer Rights Directive.
31 März 2022
Following its Circular Economy Action Plan, the EU Commission adopted a proposal for a Sustainable Products Ecodesign Regulation on 30 March 2022. The Commission wants to replace the existing Ecodesign Directive with a – directly applicable and much broader – regulation, which includes far-reaching new obligations for companies.
30 März 2022
On 30 March 2022, the European Commission published a package of proposals to make sustainable products the norm in the EU. The aim is to make most physical goods in the EU more environmentally friendly, circular and energy efficient throughout their full lifecycle. The Circular Economy Package focuses on the ecodesign of sustainable products, sustainable textiles, sustainable construction products and new rules to enable consumers to make more informed choices and protect them from greenwashing.
25 November 2021
Environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) aspects are relevant for most, if not all areas of law. It is no news that this includes sustainability issues in product liability law. However, in its brand-new coalition agreement, the future German government presented plans for product liability that go far beyond previous considerations. Most notably, the coalition parties want to introduce “a flexible warranty period based on the respective service life determined by the manufacturer”.
16 Juli 2021
The EU Commission recently launched a legislative initiative to adapt civil liability rules to the digital age and developments in artificial intelligence to address the risks associated with the transition to a digital and circular economy. Some of the Commission's proposals regarding strict liability, burden of proof and the development risk defence have the potential to fundamentally change product liability law. Read more about the Commission’s proposed options to bring product liability law to the digital age in our new blogpost.
28 Mai 2021
The MDR naturally brings with it a number of regulatory changes and challenges, but it also contains provisions that can be expected to have an impact on medical device liability under the Product Liability Directive and its national counterparts. We have highlighted a few of the most relevant changes that are likely to introduce additional product liability risks below.
28 Januar 2021
The law on autonomous driving presented by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, which seeks to make Germany a pioneer of binding regulations on autonomous driving and which was supposed to come into force in the middle of this year, is under heavy criticism from the Federal Ministry of Justice. In view of the major disagreements between the ministries, it is questionable whether the law will be passed as planned during the current legislative period ending this fall.
15 Januar 2021
The implementation of two EU Directives will bring about a further strengthening of consumer rights in Germany and subject companies to a variety of new obligations. The implementation of the Directives will also increase liability risks.
18 Mai 2020
Volltext der Entscheidungsbesprechung von Dr. Rupert Bellinghausen und Anke Krause in Neue juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 2020, 1480
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