DENMARK Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jakob Dahl Mikkelsen, Emil Petri and Christina Bak, Kromann Reumert
property damage, the new rules will cover medical - ly recognised psychological injuries, as well as the destruction, loss or corruption of non-commercial data. The most far-reaching changes concern the injured party’s evidential position. The bill introduces court- ordered disclosure of evidence and explicit presump - tion rules. A product will be presumed defective if the manufacturer fails to comply with a disclosure order or if the product does not meet applicable safety require - ments. In technically or scientifically complex cases, courts may also establish defectiveness or causation despite the absence of full proof, provided that the injured party faces disproportionate evidential difficul - ties. All such presumptions remain rebuttable. Practical implications The new Act is expected to increase both legal and commercial risk across the entire value chain. Manu - facturers and distributors should therefore strengthen their quality assurance processes, internal documen - tation and product instructions to mitigate potential liability exposure. At the same time, the non-statutory product liability rules developed through case law will remain applica - ble alongside the new Act, in particular in relation to damage to commercial property. It will also continue to be possible, within certain limits, to allocate, limit or exclude liability contractually. US Litigation and a Danish Class Action – Product Liability Meets the Digital Age The US verdict – design liability, not content liability In March 2026, a jury in the Los Angeles County Supe - rior Court awarded USD6 million in K . G . M . v Meta et al ., finding Meta and YouTube liable for harm caused not by content, but by the platforms’ design. The jury concluded that specific design features in Instagram and YouTube – such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and beauty filters – had made the plaintiff clinically addicted as a teenager. The verdict is being appealed, but it is only the first of more than 20 bellwether trials. Approximately 1,500 similar lawsuits are currently pending, and Meta has
acknowledged that the aggregate damages sought could amount to “hundreds of billions of dollars”. The Danish sequel – SOMI’s class action against Meta On 1 April 2026 – just one week after the US verdict – the Dutch non-profit organisation SOMI ( Stichting Onderzoek Marktinformatie ) filed a class action before the Copenhagen City Court against Meta on behalf of Danish children and adolescents who have used Facebook and Instagram. The claim alleges that both platforms are deliberately designed to be addictive. SOMI seeks DKK25,000 per affected minor and injunctive relief. The case forms part of a broader wave of proceedings against Meta across several EU member states. The complaint invokes the EU AI Act, the Digital Services Act, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Danish Marketing Practices Act and Danish product liability regulation. The lawsuit is brought pursuant to Chapter 23a of the Danish Administration of Justice Act and the Act on Access to Class Actions for the Protection of the Col - lective Interests of Consumers. Danish class actions follow an opt in model, and punitive damages are not available – both of which mark significant departures from the US system. Certification is subject to seven cumulative conditions, the most demanding of which is the requirement that a class action constitutes the best procedural option. SOMI acts as the group representative, relying on its status as a cross-border qualified entity under EU Directive 2020/1828. The Intersection With Product Liability The US verdict has no direct legal effect in Denmark. However, the type of analysis undertaken by the jury is what the new Product Liability Directive is designed to facilitate. Three aspects are particularly significant: • first, medically recognised psychological harm is now explicitly covered as personal injury (Article 6 (1)(a)), meaning clinical addiction from an app’s design may ground a product liability claim;
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