Võlaõigusseadus, Sections 1061 to 1067, Liability for a Defective Product (Directive 85/374/EEC)

Section 1061(1) of the Võlaõigusseadus (Law of Obligations Act) makes the producer liable for a person's death, bodily injury or damage to health that a defective product causes. Section 1061(2) makes the producer liable for the destruction of or damage to a thing only where the thing is of a kind normally used for consumption outside business or professional activity, the injured person used it mainly that way, and the damage exceeds the equivalent of EUR 500.

Section 1061(3) excludes liability for damage to the product itself. Section 1061(4) makes the producer of a defective medicinal product liable under the same division unless a statute provides otherwise. Section 1061(5) leaves claims on any other legal basis, including damages for unlawfully and culpably caused harm, untouched.

Section 1062(1) treats as the producer the maker of the finished product, raw material or component, a person who presents itself as the producer by showing its name, trade mark or other distinguishing mark on the product, and a person who brought the product into Estonia or another Member State of the European Union in its business activity in order to sell, hire out, lease or otherwise distribute it.

Section 1062(2) treats as producer a person who handed the product to the injured person where the producer cannot be identified, unless that person names the producer or its own supplier within a reasonable time after the injured person asks. Section 1063(1) treats as a product any movable thing, even where it is part of another movable or has become part of an immovable, as well as electricity and computer software (arvutitarkvara).

The explanatory memorandum to the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs' draft of 21 September 2026 states that the present Act's definition of a product already covers computer software. Section 1063(2) makes a product defective where it is not as safe as a person is entitled to expect, taking all circumstances into account, in particular how the product is presented to the public, the use the injured person could reasonably expect, and when the product was put on the market.

Section 1064(1) frees the producer who proves that it did not put the product on the market, that circumstances indicate the product did not have the damaging defect when it was put on the market, that it neither made the product for sale or other distribution nor made or distributed it in its business or professional activity, that the defect results from the product meeting mandatory requirements in force when it was put on the market, or that the state of science and technology then did not allow the defect to be discovered.

Section 1064(2) frees the producer of a raw material or component who proves that the defect results from the design of the finished product or from the finished-product producer's instruction. Section 1064(3) does not allow the producer's liability to be reduced where the damage resulted both from the defect and from the conduct of a third party. Section 1065 puts on the injured person the burden of proving the damage, the defect and the causal link between them.

Section 1066(1) sets a limitation period of three years from the day the injured person learned, or should reasonably have learned, of the damage, the defect and the identity of the producer. Section 1066(2) ends the claims ten years after the day following the day the product that caused the damage was put on the market, unless an action has been brought by then. Section 1067 makes void any agreement that limits or excludes the producer's liability under the division. The Act came into force on 1 July 2002.