Last year, the Commission published a proposal for a new Product Liability Directive (PLD) to replace the existing PLD, Directive 85/374/ECC.2 The proposal addresses liability for products such as software and digital services, and clarifies the rules applicable to companies that substantially modify products for resale. It also suggests that the claimant’s burden of proof should be relaxed in certain circumstances and aims to ensure that consumers are compensated for defective products manufactured outside the […]

Products are commonly recalled due to a hazard (i.e., a risk of harm), even where large swaths of consumers have never had a problem with the products they purchased. When those consumers then file suit, they often seek to recover economic harm based on the “benefit of the bargain” theory—because the recalled products that they previously purchased are now worth less than what they paid for them. Where a consumer does experience the hazard (i.e., suffers personal injury […]