The Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability is a convention concluded in 1971 within the framework of the

Hague Conference on Private International Law The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) is an intergovernmental organisation in the area of private international law (also known as ''conflict of laws''), that administers several international conventions, protocols and soft ...

(HCCH), which governs the law that should be applied to products liability cases. It entered into force in 1973 and as of 2020, 11 countries are party to it.

Scope of application

The convention exclusively determines the law that applies between the manufacturer or distributor of a product and the person(s) that have suffered damage. It thus does not handle which court has jurisdiction, or whether a judicial decision should be recognized. The convention does not apply between the seller that directly sold the product to the person suffering the damage. The exclusion was chosen as the negotiators deemed the relationship between those two parties already clear enough, and would hamper wide adoption of the convention. The products the convention applies to "shall include natural and industrial products, whether raw or manufactured and whether movable or immovable", and thus has a wide meaning. Member states can decide to exclude agricultural products from the scope of the convention (Article 16), as Spain did.

Applicable law

The convention's main articles determining which law should be applied are Articles 4 and (if that doesn't result in an applicable law) Article 5. They are summarized below:

Parties

References

{{Reflist Treaties concluded in 1973 Treaties entered into force in 1977

Products liability Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word "product" has bro ...

Treaties of Croatia Treaties of Finland Treaties of France Treaties of Luxembourg Treaties of Montenegro Treaties of the Netherlands Treaties of Norway Treaties of North Macedonia Treaties of Serbia Treaties of Slovenia Treaties of Spain Treaties of Yugoslavia Treaties extended to Aruba Treaties extended to Curaçao Treaties extended to Sint Maarten Treaties extended to the Caribbean Netherlands