Product Liability Directive 2024/2853: 9 Dec 2026

From 9 December 2026, software and AI systems are "products" for EU strict-liability purposes. This article walks through what that means for an SMB whose AI tool causes harm, or whose own digital product does.

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applies to new products</text> <text x="600" y="265" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="Instrument Serif, serif" fontSize="18" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Member State transposition status (as of 15 May 2026)</text> <g id="status-pills"> <rect x="80" y="300" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#DCFCE7" stroke="#1B7D56" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="110" cy="328" r="8" fill="#1B7D56"/> <text x="130" y="324" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#145E40">Germany</text> <text x="130" y="342" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#145E40">draft bill, Sep 2025</text> <rect x="300" y="300" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEF3C7" stroke="#D97706" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="330" cy="328" r="8" fill="#D97706"/> <text x="350" y="324" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#92400E">Netherlands</text> <text x="350" y="342" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#92400E">verify at publish-time</text> <rect x="520" y="300" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEF3C7" stroke="#D97706" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="550" cy="328" r="8" fill="#D97706"/> <text x="570" y="324" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#92400E">Austria</text> <text x="570" y="342" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#92400E">verify at publish-time</text> <rect x="740" y="300" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEF3C7" stroke="#D97706" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="770" cy="328" r="8" fill="#D97706"/> <text x="790" y="324" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#92400E">Ireland</text> <text x="790" y="342" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#92400E">verify at publish-time</text> <rect x="960" y="300" width="160" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEF3C7" stroke="#D97706" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="990" cy="328" r="8" fill="#D97706"/> <text x="1010" y="324" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#92400E">Belgium</text> <text x="1010" y="342" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#92400E">verify</text> <rect x="80" y="380" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEF3C7" stroke="#D97706" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="110" cy="408" r="8" fill="#D97706"/> <text x="130" y="404" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#92400E">Spain</text> <text x="130" y="422" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#92400E">verify at publish-time</text> <rect x="300" y="380" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEF3C7" stroke="#D97706" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="330" cy="408" r="8" fill="#D97706"/> <text x="350" y="404" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#92400E">Poland</text> <text x="350" y="422" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#92400E">verify at publish-time</text> <rect x="520" y="380" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEE2E2" stroke="#B91C1C" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="550" cy="408" r="8" fill="#B91C1C"/> <text x="570" y="404" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#B91C1C">France</text> <text x="570" y="422" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#B91C1C">significant delay expected</text> <rect x="740" y="380" width="200" height="56" rx="28" fill="#FEE2E2" stroke="#B91C1C" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <circle cx="770" cy="408" r="8" fill="#B91C1C"/> <text x="790" y="404" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="14" fontWeight="600" fill="#B91C1C">Italy</text> <text x="790" y="422" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#B91C1C">no public progress yet</text> </g> <rect x="80" y="500" width="1040" height="100" rx="10" fill="#F0FDF4" stroke="#1B7D56" strokeWidth="1.5"/> <text x="600" y="535" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="Instrument Serif, serif" fontSize="16" fontWeight="600" fill="#145E40">9 December 2026 is the EU deadline</text> <text x="600" y="560" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="13" fill="#1A1A1A">Whether claims are actually available in your jurisdiction depends on whether your Member State has transposed.</text> <text x="600" y="580" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="13" fill="#1A1A1A">France and Italy are widely expected to be late. Re-check status before relying on the new claim path.</text> <text x="600" y="660" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#525252">Status as of 15 May 2026. Sources: Directive (EU) 2024/2853, Commission Single Market portal, national legislative trackers.</text> <text x="600" y="680" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="11" fill="#525252">Re-check before relying on this.</text> </svg> <figcaption>9 December 2026 is the EU deadline. National transposition determines whether claims are actually available in your jurisdiction. France and Italy are widely expected to be late.</figcaption> </figure>

The short version

Directive (EU) 2024/2853 repeals the 1985 Product Liability Directive and replaces it with a regime that treats software and AI systems as products. Member States must transpose it by 9 December 2026, and from that date it applies to products placed on the EU market or put into service after the cutover. Products placed before the cutover stay under Directive 85/374/EEC.

The headline change is that an injured natural person can claim against the manufacturer of a defective software or AI product without proving fault. They still need to show defectiveness, damage and causation, but the burden is eased through evidence-disclosure obligations and rebuttable presumptions. Open-source software developed and supplied outside a commercial activity is excluded under Article 2(2).

Most SMBs are affected as potential claimants when a defective AI tool causes harm to them, an employee or a customer. A smaller number, those who sell digital products such as templates, plugins, SaaS or AI-powered services, may themselves become a manufacturer. The hub article on who's liable when AI helps build your website is the practical SMB scenario this article is the depth piece for.

What actually changes on 9 December 2026

Software is now a "product" (Article 4)

Article 4 expands "product" to include all movables, electricity, digital manufacturing files, raw materials and software. Recital 13 confirms software is a product regardless of how it is supplied: downloaded, embedded, SaaS or cloud. AI systems as defined in the AI Act are squarely in scope. The 1985 Directive applied awkwardly to software at best. The new regime addresses it directly.

Strict liability for the injured party (Article 6)

An injured natural person can claim against the manufacturer without proving fault. They need to show defect, damage and causal link. Article 10 introduces rebuttable presumptions of defectiveness or causation in defined cases, which is a significant relief for claimants facing opaque AI systems.

Damages covered: death, personal injury including psychological harm, damage to private property and destruction of data not used for professional purposes. Pure economic loss and damage to business-purpose property remain outside the regime.

Evidence disclosure (Article 9)

Article 9 requires defendants in technologically complex cases to disclose relevant evidence on a court order, subject to confidentiality protections. This addresses the problem that proprietary AI models are black boxes the claimant cannot inspect. A claimant who can show plausibility of a claim can compel disclosure.

Expanded list of liable economic operators (Article 8)

Liability does not stop at the manufacturer. Importers, authorised representatives, fulfilment service providers, distributors and in defined cases online platforms can also be liable, especially where no EU-established manufacturer can be identified. The Directive deliberately keeps a claim path open when the developer sits outside the EU.

When the new rules apply to you

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The two claim paths run in parallel and address different harms.</desc> <rect x="0" y="0" width="1000" height="540" fill="#FFFFFF"/> <text x="500" y="35" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="Instrument Serif, serif" fontSize="20" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Two different claim paths for two different harms</text> <rect x="30" y="60" width="460" height="430" rx="10" fill="#F0FDF4" stroke="#1B7D56" strokeWidth="2"/> <text x="260" y="90" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="Instrument Serif, serif" fontSize="16" fontWeight="600" fill="#145E40">Strict Liability under PLD 2024/2853</text> <text x="260" y="110" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">From 9 December 2026</text> <text x="50" y="145" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Who can claim</text> <text x="50" y="163" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Injured natural persons.</text> <text x="50" y="190" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Burden of proof</text> <text x="50" y="208" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Defect plus damage plus causation,</text> <text x="50" y="224" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">eased by Art. 9 disclosure.</text> <text x="50" y="251" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">What is covered</text> <text x="50" y="269" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Death, personal injury, private</text> <text x="50" y="285" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">property damage, non-professional</text> <text x="50" y="301" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">data destruction.</text> <text x="50" y="328" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Against whom</text> <text x="50" y="346" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Manufacturer, importer, distributor,</text> <text x="50" y="362" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">authorised rep, fulfilment service,</text> <text x="50" y="378" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">in defined cases online platforms.</text> <text x="50" y="405" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Excluded</text> <text x="50" y="423" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Pure economic loss, business</text> <text x="50" y="439" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">property, pre-2026 products.</text> <text x="50" y="466" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Open-source carve-out</text> <text x="50" y="484" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Yes (Art. 2(2), recital 14).</text> <rect x="510" y="60" width="460" height="430" rx="10" fill="#FFFFFF" stroke="#525252" strokeWidth="2"/> <text x="740" y="90" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="Instrument Serif, serif" fontSize="16" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Contract Claim Against Your Agency</text> <text x="740" y="110" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Existing path, unchanged</text> <text x="530" y="145" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Who can claim</text> <text x="530" y="163" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Site owner (contracting party).</text> <text x="530" y="190" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Burden of proof</text> <text x="530" y="208" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Breach of contract, damage,</text> <text x="530" y="224" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">causation. Standard rules.</text> <text x="530" y="251" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">What is covered</text> <text x="530" y="269" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Whatever the contract covers:</text> <text x="530" y="285" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">remediation costs, refund,</text> <text x="530" y="301" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">contractual damages.</text> <text x="530" y="328" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Against whom</text> <text x="530" y="346" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Your agency or freelancer.</text> <text x="530" y="378" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Excluded</text> <text x="530" y="396" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Anything outside the contract.</text> <text x="530" y="423" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="600" fill="#1A1A1A">Open-source carve-out</text> <text x="530" y="441" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fill="#525252">Not applicable.</text> <rect x="30" y="500" width="940" height="30" rx="6" fill="#E5E5E5"/> <text x="500" y="520" textAnchor="middle" fontFamily="DM Sans, sans-serif" fontSize="12" fontWeight="500" fill="#1A1A1A">These run in parallel. The same incident may give rise to both claims, neither, or one.</text> </svg> <figcaption>Both claim paths matter. Neither replaces GDPR controller liability, which is a third, separate question.</figcaption> </figure>

As a claimant. If a defective AI tool causes damage to a natural person, the PLD gives that person a no-fault path against the manufacturer. The realistic claimants are usually employees, customers or third parties affected through your site, not the SMB itself for its own commercial losses. An AI customer-service bot that harms a diabetic customer, an AI medical-information assistant that misclassifies a symptom, a security flaw in an AI coding assistant with security defects that causes natural persons to lose private data: these are the scenarios.

As a manufacturer. If you sell a digital product, you may yourself fit the manufacturer definition in Article 4(11). Examples: a downloadable WordPress plugin, a SaaS subscription, an online tool, an AI-powered service. You may also become a manufacturer through "substantial modification" (Article 4(18), Article 8(2)) if you heavily customise a third-party tool. For most SMBs running a normal site this defendant scenario is unlikely.

What is excluded

• Open-source software developed and supplied outside a commercial activity is excluded under Article 2(2). Recital 14 says that open-source supplied for payment or in exchange for personal data is back in scope. A hobby plugin given away freely sits outside the regime. A "free" plugin that requires email signup as the price of admission may not.
• Damage purely to business property used for professional purposes is not covered. The PLD protects private property, not commercial assets.
• Pure economic loss is not covered. Lost revenue, lost contracts and reputational harm fall outside the regime. Pursue those under contract or national tort law.
• Products placed on the market before 9 December 2026 continue to live under Directive 85/374/EEC. The repeal in Article 25 is forward-looking only.
• Damage from nuclear accidents covered by international conventions is excluded under Article 2(3). Not an SMB problem in practice but worth naming.

Member State transposition: the messy reality

Each Member State must transpose by 9 December 2026, and as of mid-May 2026 the wave has not crested. Germany published a draft bill in September 2025 and is widely expected to transpose on time. France is widely expected to delay, given the 1985 PLD itself took over ten years to transpose into French law. Italy has shown no public progress yet. The Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Poland sit in the "verify at publish-time" middle category.

The practical implication is uncomfortable. If your jurisdiction has not transposed by 9 December 2026, the old 1985 regime continues there for now and the new strict-liability claim is not yet available. National courts may interpret existing law "in the light of" the Directive after the deadline, but this varies between jurisdictions. Verify against the Commission's Single Market liability page before acting on this article.

How it differs from the AI Act and GDPR

The PLD, the AI Act and the GDPR are three distinct instruments addressing three distinct questions. They run in parallel and the same incident can trigger all three or none.

AI Act. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 regulates how AI systems are placed on the EU market: risk classification, transparency obligations, conformity assessment. It does not by itself create civil liability for harm. A failure to comply with Article 50 transparency does not automatically generate a PLD claim. The companion article on what the AI Act actually requires of website owners covers Article 50 transparency, which applies from 2 August 2026, four months before the PLD.

GDPR. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 regulates the processing of personal data. The controller is the natural or legal person who determines the purposes and means of processing. The GDPR creates its own civil liability regime under Article 82, supervisory enforcement under Article 83 and administrative fines under Article 84. None of that changes on 9 December 2026. The GDPR controller liability framework sits next to the PLD, not under it.

PLD. Directive (EU) 2024/2853 creates a civil liability claim path for damage from defective products. It does not regulate placing on market and does not create supervisory fines. A PLD claim runs between an injured natural person and a manufacturer or other listed economic operator. You can have a PLD claim without an AI Act violation. You can have an AI Act violation without a PLD claim. The same is true for the GDPR overlap.

What this does not do

The PLD does not create a remedy for pure economic loss. If a defective AI tool costs you a contract, that is a contract or national tort matter, not a PLD claim. It does not retroactively apply to existing products on the market.

It does not change who the GDPR controller is. The supervisory authority enforcing the GDPR still looks at the site operator. The fines under GDPR enforcement against small businesses continue to land on the controller, not on the AI tool. And it does not replace the proposed AI Liability Directive, which was formally withdrawn in October 2025. The PLD is narrower than the withdrawn proposal would have been.

Five practical takeaways for your business

1. If you sell digital products, document your safety processes and update mechanisms. Under Article 9 evidence disclosure a court can compel you to produce internal evidence. Keep change logs, security testing records and an audit trail for safety-relevant updates.
2. If you rely on AI tools in a way that could foreseeably cause harm to a natural person, review your supplier contracts for indemnification. Your supplier should carry the product-liability risk, not you. A clear indemnification clause in your contract is the lever to push the risk back.
3. Keep version logs and prompt logs for critical AI tools. Coding assistants, customer-service bots and automated decision systems leave thin paper trails by default. Logging is useful for both PLD evidence-disclosure scenarios and AI Act compliance.
4. If you maintain free open-source software, do not assume the commercial-activity exclusion applies to you. The carve-out depends on how you monetise and how you accept data. Dual-licensing, paid support and any data-for-service arrangement may pull you back into scope under recital 14. Get specific advice.
5. Old products are not retroactively covered. Products placed on the market before 9 December 2026 stay under the 1985 regime. This protects existing products from a new wave of claims but it also means injured persons cannot use the new path against older products.

Our free compliance scan checks GDPR, cookies, accessibility and image rights on your live site. It does not directly check PLD compliance, because the PLD is a liability framework rather than a set of website checks. What it does is confirm that the site itself is on solid ground on the questions that do show up as machine-checkable rules.

Common Questions

Does the new Product Liability Directive apply in the UK?

No. The UK is not bound by Directive (EU) 2024/2853. UK product liability remains under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and retained EU law. A UK business serving EU customers can still face PLD claims for products placed on the EU market after 9 December 2026.

When does the new Directive actually start to apply?

From 9 December 2026, for products placed on the market or put into service after that date. Products placed before that date remain under Directive 85/374/EEC. The PLD does not retroactively apply to existing software or AI systems.

I run a free open-source plugin. Am I a manufacturer under the PLD?

If your project operates outside a commercial activity, Article 2(2) excludes you. If you charge for support, dual-license commercially or accept personal data in exchange for the service, recital 14 says you may be back in scope. Get specific advice before assuming you are out.

Can I sue OpenAI, Anthropic or GitHub if their tool causes me damage?

Potentially yes, from 9 December 2026, but only for damage to natural persons such as personal injury or destruction of private data. Pure business losses are not covered. You still need to show defectiveness, damage and causation.

Does the PLD replace the AI Liability Directive?

The proposed AI Liability Directive was formally withdrawn in OJ C/2025/5423 on 6 October 2025. The PLD is now the primary EU instrument for AI-related product damage claims, supplemented by national tort law for cases the PLD does not reach.

Related reading

Cluster pieces that pair with this one:

• Who's liable when AI helps build your website. The hub article. Reads naturally with this one as a two-part read.
• AI-generated code and copyright. Where AI-generated code defects sit in the PLD frame. <!-- TODO: replace with cluster #2 link when published -->
• AI-generated images and copyright. The image side of the cluster. <!-- TODO: replace with cluster #3 link when published -->
• EU AI Act for website owners. Article 50 transparency, four months earlier than the PLD application date.

This article is technical analysis, not legal advice. The author is not your lawyer. For a binding view on whether a specific claim is available against a specific party in your specific jurisdiction, talk to one.