Directive (EU) 2024/2853 on liability for defective products (the Revised Product Liability Directive) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 18 November 2024.

The Revised Product Liability Directive updates the rules on strict liability for defective products, and brings software (including AI) into scope for the regime.

In the world of AI regulation, it sits alongside the AI Act, which introduces harmonised rules to promote trustworthy and human-centric AI. The AI Act introduces fines and other regulatory enforcement powers for non-compliance, but does not create a private right of action.  

A separate proposal for an AI Liability Directive is likely to assist claimants in making fault-based non-contractual claims. The European Parliament had not reached a position on the AI Liability Directive before the elections in June 2024, but it recently appeared on a list of files on which the Parliament intends to continue work. A recent European Parliamentary Research Service report suggested that there is still a legal gap to be addressed by the AI Liability Directive, and that it should instead be brought forward as a Regulation and bring software into its scope.

Both the Revised Product Liability Directive and proposed AI Liability Directive are in-scope for the Representative Actions Directive (EU 2020/1828)  (so may open the door to representative actions being brought on behalf of a class of claimants for harm caused by an AI system).

The transposition deadline for the Revised Product Liability Directive is 9 December 2026.