Data & Privacy
- Data Act
- Data Governance Act
- ePrivacy Directive
- GDPR
AI & Trust
- Artificial Intelligence Act
- Product Liability Directive
Cybersecurity
- Cybersecurity Act
- DORA
- NIS2
Digital Services & Media
- Digital Markets Act
- Digital Services Act
- European Media Freedom Act
Product Liability Directive
- Recitals
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONSArticles 1 — 4
CHAPTER II
SPECIFIC PROVISIONS ON LIABILITY FOR DEFECTIVE PRODUCTSArticles 5 — 11
CHAPTER III
GENERAL PROVISIONS ON LIABILITYArticles 12 — 17
CHAPTER IV
FINAL PROVISIONSArticles 18 — 24
ANNEXES
PLD Article 17. Expiry period
- 1.Member States shall ensure that an injured person is no longer entitled to compensation pursuant to this Directive upon the expiry of a period of 10 years, unless that injured person has, in the meantime, initiated proceedings against an economic operator that can be held liable pursuant to Article 8. That period shall run from:
- (a)the date on which the defective product which caused the damage was placed on the market or put into service; or
- (b)in the case of a substantially modified product, the date on which that product was made available on the market or put into service following its substantial modification.
- 2.By way of exception from paragraph 1, where an injured person has not been able to initiate proceedings within 10 years of the dates referred to in paragraph 1 due to the latency of a personal injury, the injured person shall no longer be entitled to compensation pursuant to this Directive upon the expiry of a period of 25 years, unless that injured person has, in the meantime, initiated proceedings against an economic operator that can be held liable pursuant to Article 8.
Relevant Recitals for this Article
Given that products age over time and that higher safety standards are developed as the state of science and technology progresses, it would not be reasonable to make manufacturers liable for an unlimited period of time for the defectiveness of their products. Therefore, liability should be subject to a reasonable length of time, namely 10 years from the placing on the market or putting into service of a product (the ‘expiry period’), without prejudice to claims pending in legal proceedings. In order to avoid unreasonably restricting the possibility of compensation for damage caused by a defective product, the expiry period should be extended to 25 years in cases where the symptoms of a personal injury are, according to medical evidence, slow to emerge.
Since substantially modified products are essentially new products, a new expiry period should start to run after a product has been substantially modified and has subsequently been made available on the market or put into service, for example as a result of remanufacturing. Updates or upgrades that do not amount to a substantial modification of the product should not affect the expiry period that applies to the original product.