The Product Liability Directive''
85/374/EECis a
directive of the
Council of the European Communities
The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...
(now the European Union) which created a regime of
strict liability for defective products applicable in all member states of the European Union, the other
EEA members (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and the United Kingdom.
Background
The Council adopted a resolution in 1975 for a preliminary programme on
consumer protection and
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
. Moves towards a strict liability regime in Europe began with the
Council of Europe Convention on Products Liability in regard to Personal Injury and Death (the Strasbourg Convention) in 1977. The
Pearson Commission
The Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Compensation for Personal Injury, better known as the Pearson commission was a United Kingdom royal commission, established in 1973 under the chairmanship of Lord Pearson. The commission reported in 197 ...
in the
UK noted that this work had started, and refrained from making their own recommendations. A second EU programme followed in 1981.
The
preamble to the directive cites Art. 100 (subsequently renumbered to Art. 94, then to Art. 115) of the
Treaty of Rome and the aim to achieve a
single market:
The preamble then goes on:
Content
Articles 1 to 12 create a scheme of strict product liability for damage arising from defective products. This liability is in addition to any existing rights that consumers enjoy under domestic law (article 13).
The directive does not extend to
nuclear accident
A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, lar ...
s, these being covered by existing
international convention
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
s (article 14). The original directive did not extend to
game or primary
agricultural produce
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
(article 2) but this exception was repealed by directive 1999/34/EC following concerns over
BSE
BSE may refer to:
Medicine
* Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, a neurodegenerative disease of cattle
* Breast self-examination
Stock exchanges
* Bahrain Stock Exchange, Bahrain
* Baku Stock Exchange, Azerbaijan
* B ...
.
Development risks defence
Article 15(1)(b) of the directive gives member states the option of adopting the development risks defence:
, all EU member states other than
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
and
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
had taken advantage of it to some extent.
Implementation by state
Because EU directives do not have
direct effect
In European Union law, direct effect is the principle that Union law may, if appropriately framed, confer rights on individuals which the courts of member states of the European Union are bound to recognise and enforce.
Direct effect is not e ...
, they only come into force on persons in member states when implemented in national
legislation
Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...
. Article 19 demanded implementation within 3 years.
Review
Article 21 demanded that the Commission report to the council on the application of the directive every five years.
In 2021, the European Commission contracted an Impact Assessment study on the possible revision of the Product Liability Directive.
[CSES (2021) ]
Notes
References
*
*
*European Commission (1999)
Green Paper - Liability for defective products', COM(1999)396 final
*
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External links
Text of the original DirectiveText of the amending Directive 1999/34/EC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Product Liability Directive
Safety
Product liability
1985 in law
1985 in international relations
1985 in the European Economic Community