Your product in eight questions
Answer the questions for one product. The result shows the order in which the injured person can claim, what changes for you on 9 December 2026, and the steps for your role.
Please answer the marked questions first.
Your result
The result follows your answers and updates at once when you change one.
Tell us what you make, sell or store, where your company is and who your importer in the EU is today. Our team replies with the steps and the dates for your situation.
Who pays, in which situation
The order in which the injured person can claim under Article 8 of Directive (EU) 2024/2853, for products first offered for sale in the EU after 9 December 2026. The maker is always liable. The other companies are liable next to the maker, and the injured person chooses whom to claim from.
| Situation | Who the injured person can claim from |
|---|---|
| Maker established in the EU | The maker, and the maker of a defective component |
| Maker outside the EU, importer in the EU | The importer, together with the maker |
| Maker outside the EU, authorised representative in the EU | The representative, together with the maker |
| Maker outside the EU, importer and representative both missing | The fulfilment service provider in the EU that stores, packs or ships the product, together with the maker |
| All of these companies outside the EU | Each distributor, and each online marketplace that presents the product like a seller, unless it names a liable company in the EU within one month |
| Product substantially modified by another company | That company, as if it were the maker |
What changes on 9 December 2026
- Software, apps, operating systems and AI systems count as products. Digital services that a product needs to work, such as a connected app, are included.
- Damage covers death and personal injury, including medically recognised harm to mental health, damage to private property, and the destruction or corruption of private data.
- Every euro of property damage counts. The €500 threshold of the old rules is gone.
- A court can order the liable company to disclose evidence. It presumes the product defective when the company withholds that evidence, when the product fails mandatory safety rules or when it shows an obvious malfunction.
- A missing security update that was within the maker’s control counts as a defect.
- The injured person has three years to claim after learning of the damage, the defect and the liable company. The right to claim ends ten years after the product was placed on the market, or 25 years for personal injury that appears late.
- The liability towards the injured person is unlimited. A contract clause that limits or excludes it is void.
Why warehouses in the EU are affected now
Since 1 November 2026, EU customs charge a handling fee of €2 per item type on parcels to consumers from outside the EU, on top of the €3 duty per item type on parcels up to €150. For many sellers it is now cheaper to keep stock in an EU warehouse and ship from there. 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, while the regular import declarations rose by 43%. Companies import in bulk, store the goods in the EU and sell from there.
From 9 December 2026, those warehouses can be liable for the goods on their shelves whenever the seller outside the EU has neither an importer nor an authorised representative in the EU. A warehouse that asks for that name before it accepts a pallet protects itself, and a seller that can give the name keeps its place in the warehouse.
The Netherlands, Germany and the other EU countries
The directive applies in the same way in all 27 EU countries, and in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. Each country must have its own law in place by 9 December 2026. The German Bundestag adopted the German law, the Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Produkthaftungsrechts, on 8 October 2026. In the Netherlands, the House of Representatives adopted the implementing bill (Kamerstuk 36906) on 15 October 2026 as a formal item, and the Senate plans to adopt it on 10 November 2026. The Dutch law takes effect on a date set by royal decree.
Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein follow once the directive is added to the agreement on the European Economic Area. The United Kingdom, Switzerland and Turkey have their own laws, but a maker from those countries that sells in the EU falls under the new EU rules for those sales.
Common questions
Sources
- Directive (EU) 2024/2853 on liability for defective products, Official Journal of the EU
- Bill 36906, Implementatiewet richtlijn herziening productaansprakelijkheid, Senate of the Netherlands
- German Bundestag, Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Produkthaftungsrechts, adopted 8 October 2026
- Dutch Customs, number of e-commerce declarations keeps falling, 13 October 2026
- Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR), Article 16