CyprusΟ περί της Ευθύνης λόγω Ελαττωματικών Προϊόντων Νόμος του 2026, Liability for Defective Products Bill, consultation draft transposing Directive (EU) 2024/2853
A published draft that has not reached a legislature, dated , as of .
A product liability rule binding private bodies.
- Private right of action
- Yes
As of .
Where it has got to
The text described here is Νομοσχέδιο, the draft text published article by article on the consultation page, published .
Locally, this stage is δημόσια διαβούλευση (public consultation).
The stage above is recorded at e-consultation.gov.cy.
The consultation page records the consultation as completed after and lists a revised draft bill as a Word file under its results; the summary follows the article-by-article text on the page.
What it requires
- This bill is not law: the consultation draft was posted on , and it would apply to products made available on the market after (draft Articles 3(1) and 18(1)).
- If you develop, make or produce software, have it designed or made, or put your name or trade mark on it, you answer as its manufacturer; free and open-source software developed or supplied outside a commercial activity is outside the draft (draft Articles 2 and 3(2)(a)).
- Keep supplying the software updates and upgrades needed to keep the product safe while it is within your control; a defect from software, an update or upgrade, a missing safety update, a related service or a substantial modification is not excused on the ground that the defect arose after you placed the product on the market (draft Article 10(2)).
- Judge safety against all the circumstances, including cybersecurity requirements, any ability of the product to keep learning or acquire new features after it is placed on the market, and any recall (draft Article 6(2)).
- Keep documents you could produce: when a claimant shows facts and evidence supporting a plausible claim, the court can require you to disclose the documents in your possession or control, and failing to produce the relevant evidence presumes the product defective (draft Articles 8(1) and 9(2)(a)).
- Meet the mandatory safety requirements, national or EU, that protect against the harm suffered: a claimant who shows that a product does not meet them gets a presumption of defect (draft Article 9(2)(b)).
- If you are the importer, the authorized representative or the fulfilment service provider of a manufacturer established outside the EU, you answer in the manufacturer's place; a distributor, or an online platform that lets consumers conclude distance contracts with traders, answers too if it does not name an operator or its own supplier within one month of the request (draft Article 7(1)(c), (3) and (4)).
- If you substantially modify a product outside the manufacturer's control and then make it available on the market or put it into service, you answer as its manufacturer (draft Article 7(2)).
- Do not rely on a contract term or national law to be released from liability to the injured person (draft Article 14).
- Be ready to prove an excuse: that you did not place the product on the market or put it into service, that the defect probably did not exist then or appeared afterwards, that it results from complying with legal requirements, that the objective state of scientific and technical knowledge did not allow it to be discovered, or the component and modification excuses (draft Article 10(1)).
- If you integrate a software component made by someone else into a product, you cannot sue the component's manufacturer where it was a micro or small enterprise when it placed the component on the market or you agreed by contract to waive that right (draft Article 11(2)).
- Keep the claim periods in view: three years from the day the injured person learned or could reasonably have learned of the damage, the defect and the liable operator; ten years from the day the defective product was placed on the market or put into service; 25 years where latent personal injury prevented a claim (draft Articles 15 and 16).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
What this law does
The consultation draft of Ο περί της Ευθύνης λόγω Ελαττωματικών Προϊόντων Νόμος του 2026 transposes Directive (EU) 2024/2853. The consultation page names the Consumer Protection Service. The draft was posted for public consultation on . The draft was open for comments until . The draft counts software as a product. The draft excludes free and open-source software developed or supplied outside a commercial activity.
The draft applies to products made available on the market after . The draft does not apply to products placed on the market or put into service before . The draft keeps the liability under the Law of 1995 in force for defective products placed on the market or put into service before . The draft gives a natural person who suffers damage caused by a defective product a right to compensation.
The draft covers death or personal injury, including medically recognized harm to mental health. The draft covers the destruction or corruption of data that is not used for professional purposes. The draft makes the importer, the authorized representative and, failing both, the fulfilment service provider liable where the manufacturer is established outside the European Union.
The draft makes a distributor liable where the economic operator cannot be identified and the distributor does not identify an operator or its own supplier within one month of the injured person's request. The draft requires the defendant, on the claimant's request supported by facts and evidence of a plausible claim, to disclose the documents in its possession or control. The draft presumes the product defective where the defendant does not produce the relevant evidence under Article 8(1).
The draft presumes the product defective where the claimant shows that it does not meet mandatory product safety requirements meant to protect against the harm suffered. The draft lets the court presume defectiveness or causation where the claimant faces excessive difficulties of proof and shows that a defect or causal link is likely. The draft keeps the development-risk defense.
The draft keeps operators liable for a defect due to a factor within the manufacturer's control, namely a related service, software including updates or upgrades, a missing software update needed for safety, or a substantial modification. The draft bars a manufacturer that integrates a software component from suing the component's manufacturer where that manufacturer was a micro or small enterprise.
The draft does not let an economic operator be released from liability to the injured person by a contract term or national law. The draft sets a limitation period of three years from the day the injured person learned or could reasonably have learned of the damage, the defect and the liable operator. The draft extinguishes the right to compensation ten years after the defective product was placed on the market or put into service, unless the injured person has sued in that period. The draft extends that period to 25 years where latent personal injury kept the injured person from suing.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web, trains models, generates content with AI, deploys a chatbot, sends automated outreach, makes high-risk automated decisions, processes voice recordings, processes biometric data, publishes adult content, operates a social platform, serves under-18s, operates an app store, ships a mobile app, reuses other publishers' content, distributes a software product, records calls, records text chat or tracks devices.