Fair Civil Justice Executive Director Seema Kennedy OBE’s letter on the EU’s Product Liability Directive has been published in the Financial Times, examining the PLD’s potential impact on the UK and the legal uncertainty it could create across the bloc.
Seema Kennedy notes that the new PLD “will create legal uncertainty and divergent liability standards across the single market, which is the opposite of what a harmonising measure should achieve.”
Read the full letter below:
“Your article on the concerns over the revised EU product liability directive (Report, May 8) usefully highlights the growing importance of this issue for competitiveness and legal certainty. But one point deserves emphasis: this is not simply a US concern.
British and European businesses, academics and other policy experts are also increasingly concerned that, absent clear guidance from the European Commission, key provisions of the directive — particularly those relating to presumptions of defect and causation — are being interpreted unevenly across member states. This will create legal uncertainty and divergent liability standards across the single market, which is the opposite of what a harmonising measure should achieve.
Nor is this an argument against consumer protection or access to justice. The real question is whether the new PLD rules will remain proportionate and predictable for all parties, and consistent with the EU’s key economic objectives, while avoiding incentives for abusive or speculative mass litigation.
At a time when the commission is rightly focused on competitiveness and the deepening of the single market, this should not be dismissed as a narrow sectoral complaint or a transatlantic lobbying exercise. It is a broader question of whether Europe’s liability framework will augment or fragment the market it is trying to strengthen.”
https://www.ft.com/content/a2ab35b8-9710-4a9a-8d57-d3bc99785508
