Product Liability Law In Italy

IMPLEMENTING THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

The European Union has adopted directives of broad and general scope to address product liability and product safety:

• Directive 85/374/EEC (creation of no-fault, strict liability regime);
• Directive 1999/34/EC (strict liability for defective and unsafe products);
• Directive 92/59/EEC (general safety requirement that "no producer shall place a product on the market unless the product is a safe product"); and
• Directive 2001/95/EC (general product safety; introduction of the obligation upon manufacturers to notify the relevant government authorities if they have information that their product poses a risk to consumers, which may lead to a mandatory product recall).