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11 August 2022 The European Law Institute Publishes ELI Draft of a Revised Product Liability Directive Council Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning liability for defective products (the 1985 PLD, as amended in 1999) has been the basis for product liability in the EU for almost four decades. The ELI PLD Draft aims at proposing solutions that will make the 1985 PLD fit for to the digital age. The 1985 PLD’s technology-neutral and cross-sectoral approach has made it rather resilient to many developments, but digitalisation, and in particular the increasing interaction between, and gradual merging of, tangible and purely digital goods means that the 1985 PLD is no longer as suitable in protecting consumers and other victims of harm caused by unsafe products. The ELI PLD Draft aims at proposing solutions that will make the 1985 PLD fit for the digital age. It builds on earlier ELI output on the subject (see below), and was drafted in full acknowledgment of current plans by the European Commission to amend the 1985 PLD. It aims at providing a comprehensive, coherent and consistent model that can also serve as a point of reference for a future debate on a revision of the 1985 PLD at EU level. Reflecting on the Team’s output, Bernhard A Koch, the project’s Co-Reporter said: ‘After commenting on various aspects of the PLD that seem to require at least reconsideration, we wanted to show, with the example of an actual legislative draft text, that there are indeed ways of implementing our suggestions.’ That ‘[d]igitalisation has an impact on most aspects of product liability, including the notion of product, the persons that can be held liable, relevant harm, defences, etc’ was emphasised by Jean-Sébastien Borghetti, the other project’s Co-Reporter, who went on to add that ‘the team has done its best to tackle all these issues in a coherent way, as well as others, such as the interaction between product liability and product safety.’ The output is available here. A webinar on the topic, open to the public free of charge, will take place on 29 August 2022 from 12:30–14:00 CET. To register, please click here. For an overview of ELI’s previous interventions on the topic, please see: ‘Guiding Principles for Updating the EU Product Liability Directive for the Digital Age’, authored by Christian Twigg-Flesner, which set out concrete propositions for updating the EU Product Liability Directive with a view to adapting it to the digital age. ‘ELI Response to the European Commission's Public Consultation on Civil Liability’, prepared under the leadership of Bernhard A Koch, which produced recommendations on the way forward and answered the questions specifically posed by the European Commission. For more information and press inquiries, kindly contact the ELI Secretariat ([email protected]). 1 Saatja: ELI Secretariat <[email protected]> Saadetud: 11.08.2022 18:04 Teema: ELI Draft of a Revised Product Liability Directive Published Tähtsus: Kõrgeim Manused: image001.png; image002.png; The European Law Institute Publishes ELI Draft of a Revised Product Liability Directive_Press Release.pdf Dear Expert We are pleased to inform you that the European Law Institute (ELI) published its Draft of a Revised Product Liability Directive (PLD) today. The Draft, available here, aims at proposing solutions that will make the 1985 PLD fit for the digital age. It builds on earlier ELI output on the subject, and was drafted in full acknowledgment of current plans by the European Commission to amend the 1985 PLD. It aims at providing a comprehensive, coherent and consistent model that can also serve as a point of reference for a future debate on a revision of the 1985 PLD at EU level. We would also like to invite you and your colleagues to join a discussion with experts on the above at the webinar, which will take place on 29 August 2022 from 12:30-14:00 CET. Please register here. You will find more information in the press release attached. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. With very best wishes Tomasz Dudek