NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Eva Schothorst-Gransier, Claims Made Advocatuur
alleged failure to warn was not established. The Supreme Court upheld the judgment.
the platform where all the information comes together. Revision of the EU Product Liability Directive On 28 September 2022, the European Commis - sion issued a proposal for a new Product Liability Directive. In December 2023, the EU reached a provisional agreement on the text of the new Directive. The new Product Liability Directive entered into force on 8 December 2024. EU countries will have until 9 December 2026 to transpose this Directive into national law. The PLD applies to products placed on the market as of 9 December 2026. The 1985 directive remains applicable for products placed on the market before that date. The main changes under the new PLD, com - pared to the current Directive, are as follows: • the definition of a product is expanded to include software; • damages include medically recognised dam - age to psychological health and the destruc - tion or irreversible corruption of data; • the threshold for property damage is deleted; • any person that substantially modifies the product outside the manufacturer’s control and makes it available on the market thereaf- ter will be considered a manufacturer; • a disclosure obligation is introduced; • the burden of proof is eased for consumers; • the whole supply chain is exposed to strict liability, and • in an EU database, national supreme and appeal court judgments of product liability cases will be accessible. The new PLD will substantially improve consum - ers’ positions, and this is especially true due to the European Collective Redress Directive 2020/1828, which became effective on 25 June
3. Recent Policy Changes and Outlook 3.1 Trends in Product Liability and Product Safety Policy New Product Safety Regulation 2023/988 The new GPSR has replaced both the European Product Safety Directive and the Food Imitating Product Directive. This increases the protection of EU consumers against dangerous non-food products sold both online and offline. Business - es and national market surveillance authorities have been applying the Regulation since 13 December 2024. Compared with the previous Product Safety Directive, the main changes under the Regula - tion are as follows: • a product includes (integrated and stand- alone) software (and artificial intelligence); • for all non-food consumer products, a responsible person needs to be established in the EU and can be the fulfilment service provider; • specific requirements for providers of online marketplaces are introduced; • manufacturers are required to immediately report accidents with their products to the authorities in the event of severe injury or fatalities; • specific rules apply on how to handle prod - uct safety recalls, and a recommended recall notice template containing all the mandatory elements listed in the GPSR is provided on Safety Business Gateway; and • a Consumer Safety Network will be estab - lished, and a modernised Safety Gate will be
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