Compliance dates · 9 December 2026 · EU
Member States must transpose the revised Product Liability Directive by 9 December 2026
Directive (EU) 2024/2853 replaces the product liability regime the European Union has run on since 1985. It was signed at Strasbourg on 23 October 2024 and published in the Official Journal on 18 November 2024. Article 22(1) sets the date for the national texts: “Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 9 December 2026. They shall immediately inform the Commission thereof.”
Article 2(1) decides which goods the new rules reach: “This Directive shall apply to products placed on the market or put into service after 9 December 2026.” The day a product goes out, rather than the day a claim arrives, picks the regime. Article 3 bars a Member State from writing a softer or a tougher rule, so the national texts should read alike on substance.
Software is a product
Article 4(1): “‘product’ means all movables, even if integrated into, or inter-connected with, another movable or an immovable; it includes electricity, digital manufacturing files, raw materials and software;” Article 2(2) leaves out free and open-source software supplied outside the course of a commercial activity. A business that sells an application, ships a firmware update or supplies a file a machine turns into a part is inside the definition. Strict liability means an injured person proves the defect, the damage and the link between them, with no carelessness to establish.
The 1985 regime keeps running alongside
Article 21: “Directive 85/374/EEC is repealed with effect from 9 December 2026. However, it shall continue to apply with regard to products placed on the market or put into service before that date.” Article 17 holds a claim open for 10 years from the day a product went out, or 25 where a personal injury is latent, so the old regime has a long tail. A stock list straddling the date is a list under two regimes, and the release record for each item separates them.
The harm the regime now counts
Article 6(1) names the damage compensation is available for: “death or personal injury, including medically recognised damage to psychological health”, damage to property other than the defective product itself and other than property used only for professional purposes, and “destruction or corruption of data that are not used for professional purposes”. Article 16(1) runs three years from the day the injured person learns of the damage, the defect and who is liable.
Who pays when the maker sits outside the Union
Article 8(1) makes the manufacturer of a defective product liable, and the manufacturer of a defective component with it. Where the manufacturer is established outside the Union the liability runs to the importer, to the authorised representative, and failing both to the fulfilment service provider. Article 8(2) treats anyone who substantially modifies a product outside the manufacturer's control and then makes it available as its manufacturer. For a manufacturer in Great Britain selling into the Union, the first stop is the EU importer, and the supply contract settles who carries the cost after that.
Work to do before 9 December 2026
- List what you place on the market or put into service, with software, firmware and digital manufacturing files beside the hardware, and record the release date of each.
- Name your role for each: manufacturer, importer, authorised representative, fulfilment service provider or distributor.
- Keep the records that identify your own supplier inside the month Article 8(3) allows a distributor.
- Read your insurance and supply contracts against strict liability on software and against substantial modification.
The Product Liability Directive system
One date answered raises the next question, and that question has a version for every product line and every country you sell into. A ComplianceSME account is where the run of searches ends: the Product Liability Directive toolkit is built from the instrument, runs as a guided interview and gives back the records the law names, so the reasoning sits on file.
Product Liability Directive Included from the Small level
Strict liability for defective products, now covering software and AI.
Directive (EU) 2024/2853 · European Union
Verified 10 October 2026 against Directive (EU) 2024/2853 as published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
More deadline answers: Platform Work Directive, 2 December 2026 · Seafarer protection, 30 October 2026 · All three with their dates