The new EU product liability rules: who is liable for products made outside the EU

Who is liable from 9 December 2026

Article 8 of Directive (EU) 2024/2853 makes the following companies liable for a defective product.

• the manufacturer of the product, and the manufacturer of a defective component;
• the importer of the product and the authorised representative of the manufacturer, when the manufacturer is established outside the EU;
• the fulfilment service provider, a company that offers at least two of warehousing, packing, addressing and dispatching for goods owned by others, when it is the only company on the list in the EU;
• a distributor, when the injured person asks it to name a liable company in the EU from the list, or its own supplier, and the distributor leaves that request unanswered for one month; the same rule applies to online platforms that present a product the way a seller would;
• anyone who substantially modifies a product outside the control of the manufacturer, who then counts as a manufacturer.

The directive defines the importer as the person who places a product from a country outside the EU on the EU market (Article 4(12)). A European distributor that buys your goods at the factory and brings them into the EU is therefore the importer.

What counts as a product and as damage

The definition of a product covers electricity, digital manufacturing files, raw materials and software (Article 4(1)). Software in turn covers operating systems, firmware, computer programs, applications and AI systems. Free and open-source software supplied outside a commercial activity falls outside the directive, while digital services that a product needs to work, such as a connected app, are included.

Damage covers death and personal injury, including medically recognised damage to psychological health (Article 6). It also covers damage to property, except the product itself and property used only for professional purposes, and the destruction or corruption of data that people use privately.

The old €500 threshold for property damage has been abolished. Liability towards the injured person is unlimited, and a contract clause that limits it is void (Article 15).

A lighter burden of proof for the injured person

Once a claim is plausible, a court can order the defendant to disclose evidence (Article 9). It presumes the product defective if the defendant withholds that evidence (Article 10(2)). The court makes the same presumption when the product breaches mandatory safety rules or shows an obvious malfunction.

A court also presumes the causal link between defect and damage when the damage is of a kind typically consistent with the defect (Article 10(3)). For technically complex products such as AI systems, it can presume the defect, the link or both when proof is excessively difficult. The claimant must then show that the defect or the link is likely (Article 10(4)). The liable company can rebut every presumption (Article 10(5)).

Time limits and defences

An injured person has three years to bring a claim (Article 16). The period starts when the person knew, or should reasonably have known, of the damage, the defect and the identity of the liable company. The right to claim ends ten years after the product was placed on the market or substantially modified, or 25 years for personal injury that appears later (Article 17).

A liable company escapes liability if it proves certain facts (Article 11). Examples are that the defect probably arose after it placed the product on the market, or that the defect results from compliance with the law. Another example is a defect that was impossible to discover with the state of science and technology at the time. For defects in software, updates or related services within the control of the manufacturer, the defence that the defect arose later is excluded (Article 11(2)).

When several companies are liable, the injured person can claim the full amount from any of them, a rule known as joint and several liability (Article 12). The company that pays can recover from the others under national law (Article 14).

Who pays, in which situation

The table gives the order of Article 8 for products placed on the market after 9 December 2026. The manufacturer is always liable. The other companies are liable next to the manufacturer, and the injured person chooses whom to claim from.

Warehouses and fulfilment companies

Since 1 November 2026, EU customs charge a handling fee of €2 per item type on parcels to consumers from outside the EU. That fee comes on top of the €3 duty per item type on parcels up to €150. Stock in an EU warehouse is cheaper when its duty, warehouse and delivery costs come to less than these parcel charges. Dutch Customs reported on 13 October 2026 that the number of lines in e-commerce declarations in August and September 2026 was about 70% lower than a year earlier. Regular import declarations rose by 43%. Companies import in bulk, store the goods in the EU and sell from there.

From 9 December 2026, a fulfilment service provider is liable for the goods on its shelves whenever both the importer and the authorised representative of the seller outside the EU are missing in the EU. The liability towards the injured person is unlimited and a clause in the contract with the seller that limits it is void. A warehouse therefore asks for the name and address of the importer or representative before it accepts a pallet. It adds indemnity and insurance clauses to its contracts, and it records per batch when goods arrived and when they were first offered for sale. A seller that can give that name keeps its place in the warehouse.

A product is placed on the market the first time it is made available for sale in the EU. Stock that comes into an EU warehouse in November and is first offered for sale after 9 December falls under the new rules.

In the Netherlands

The Netherlands is writing the directive into Dutch law through a bill that amends Books 6 and 7 of the Dutch Civil Code. That bill is the act implementing the revised product liability directive (Implementatiewet richtlijn herziening productaansprakelijkheid, Kamerstuk 36906). The Council of State gave its advice on 3 December 2025, and the government submitted the bill on 2 March 2026. The House of Representatives adopted it on 15 October 2026 as a formal item (hamerstuk). The Senate (Eerste Kamer) plans to adopt it on 10 November 2026, and a member can ask for a written round of questions until 3 November 2026. The Dutch law takes effect on a date set by royal decree, while the directive covers products placed on the market from 9 December 2026.

The directive applies to products placed on the market after 9 December 2026, which is also the deadline for writing it into national law. The Dutch act comes later. Until it is in force, Dutch courts apply the current rules of the Civil Code and interpret them in line with the directive once the deadline has passed. The Dutch bill includes the defence for the state of science and technology.

The German Bundestag adopted the German law, the Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Produkthaftungsrechts, on 8 October 2026. The directive also applies in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein follow once the directive is added to the agreement on the European Economic Area.

What your own EU importer company does

Your EU importer company takes the importer role for your group. It places the products on the EU market under its own name, which appears on the product, and keeps the product records. A Dutch private limited company (BV) is liable for what it does in its own name. Its shareholders are liable up to their share capital (Dutch Civil Code, Book 2, Article 175).

The manufacturer remains directly liable and the injured person chooses whom to claim from. Your group therefore manages the European risk in the importer company, together with insurance at group level. According to the explanatory memorandum to the Dutch bill, general business liability insurance in the Netherlands usually includes product liability.

If a Dutch company goes bankrupt, its directors are liable for manifestly improper management that was an important cause of the bankruptcy. The law treats incomplete books or late annual accounts as improper management (Book 2, Article 248). Directors protect themselves by keeping complete books and filing the annual accounts on time.

The link with the product safety rules

Since 13 December 2024, most consumer products placed on the EU market must have a company established in the EU that is responsible for them, the economic operator. That is the rule of Article 16 of the EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), Regulation (EU) 2023/988. The CE marking is the mark by which the manufacturer declares that a product meets EU safety rules. For many products with that mark, such as machinery, toys and electrical and radio equipment, the same rule has applied since 16 July 2021 under Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. One EU company can act as the importer under both sets of rules.

Sources: Directive (EU) 2024/2853 on liability for defective products; European Commission, liability for defective products; House of Representatives, bill 36906 and its explanatory memorandum; Senate (Eerste Kamer), bill 36906; Dutch Civil Code, Book 2, Articles 175 and 248; General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988; Regulation (EU) 2019/1020; German Bundestag, Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Produkthaftungsrechts, 8 October 2026; Dutch Customs, number of e-commerce declarations keeps falling, 13 October 2026. Checked on 25 September 2026; status of the Dutch and German laws checked on 29 October 2026.