13 Facts About Product liability

Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause.

In most countries, this occurred either by enacting a separate product liability act, adding product liability rules to an existing civil code, or including strict liability within a comprehensive Consumer Protection Act.

Each type of product liability claim requires proof of different elements in order to present a valid claim.

The theoretical foundation for enterprise Product liability had been laid by James as well as another law professor, Leon Green.

Early proponents of strict Product liability believed its economic impact would be minor because they were focused on manufacturing defects.

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For example, after the landmark case of Donoghue v Stevenson [1932], UK product liability law did not change any further for many decades, despite "trenchant academic criticism".

Thalidomide scandal highlighted the need for a strict product liability claim sounding in tort because the affected infants were mere bystander victims, as distinguished from product buyers or users.

Legislatures of many other countries outside the EU subsequently enacted strict Product liability regimes based on the European model, including Israel, Brazil, Peru, Australia, Russia, Switzerland, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and South Africa.

Law that needs to be applied in product liability cases is governed by the Convention on the Law Applicable to Products Liability of 1971 for the 11 countries that are party to it.

Advocates of strict liability laws argue that strict products liability causes manufacturers to internalize costs they would normally externalize.

Strict liability thus requires manufacturers to evaluate the full costs of their products.

Strict Product liability seeks to diminish the impact of information asymmetry between manufacturers and consumers.

Strict Product liability reduces litigation costs, because a plaintiff need only prove causation, not imprudence.