New product liability directive: CEP warns of legal uncertainty

The Center for European Policy (CEP) sees consumer rights strengthened in the Commission’s proposal on liability for defective products but warns of legal uncertainty and vagueness in the details. „Particularly with regard to software, the Commission’s proposal strengthens legal certainty, as software is now to be regarded as a product throughout the EU,“ says CEP economist Marco Mazzone, who analyzed the draft together with lawyer Lukas Harta (in German). However, core concepts relating to the rules on the duty of disclosure and the burden of proof are not sufficiently precise, which in turn leads to legal uncertainty.