IcelandLög um skaðsemisábyrgð nr. 25/1991 (Product Liability Act), strict liability for defective products under Directive 85/374/EEC
Lög um skaðsemisábyrgð nr. 25/1991
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived . Publisher's page: https://www.althingi.is/lagas/nuna/1991025.htmlIn force since .
A product liability rule binding private bodies.
- Private right of action
- Yes
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
As of .
What it requires
- Do not assume this Act answers whether standalone software is a product: article 3 defines a product as movables, parts of other movables or of immovables, and electricity, and does not name software (3. gr.).
- If you make a finished product or a part of one, supply a raw material, or put your name or trademark on a product as if you made it, you answer as its manufacturer; so does a person who imports a product into Iceland in the course of business to sell, rent or trade in it (4. gr.).
- If you distribute a product in the course of business without being its manufacturer, you answer for the loss unless you show it cannot be traced to your fault or neglect, and you answer directly to the injured person and to later distributors for loss traceable to fault or neglect of the manufacturer or an earlier distributor in the supply chain (10. gr.).
- If the injured person cannot find out who made or imported a product, name the manufacturer, the importer or your own supplier without undue delay, or you are treated as the manufacturer; the person you name must be liable under the Act and have a venue in Iceland (4. gr.).
- A product is defective if it is not as safe as could legitimately be expected, judged on how it was presented, the use that could reasonably be expected and when it was distributed; a better product reaching the market later does not make an earlier one defective (5. gr.).
- You carry the burden of proving an exclusion: that you did not distribute the product, that making or distributing it was not in the course of business, that the defect is due to mandatory public rules on its design, or that the defect could not be found on the scientific and technical knowledge available when it was distributed (7. gr.).
- Do not rely on a contract term made before the loss to depart from the Act to the injured person's disadvantage (12. gr.).
- Liability covers personal injury, loss of a provider and, for a thing ordinarily intended for private use, loss of at least 500 euros; your total liability for personal injury from identical products with the same defect is capped at 70 million euros (2. gr. and 8. gr.).
- A claim is time-barred three years after the injured person learned or could have learned of the loss, the defect and your name and residence, and is extinguished ten years after you distributed the product (14. gr.).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Is software supplied on its own, without a data carrier, a 'lausafjármunir' (movable) and so a 'vara' (product) within article 3 of the Act?
What this law does
Article 1 applies the Act to the liability of manufacturers and distributors for loss caused by a defect in a product they made or distributed. The explanatory memorandum to the 2014 amending bill treats the Act as the implementation in Iceland of the European Communities directive on product liability. Article 2 gives compensation for personal injury and for loss of a provider.
Article 2 also covers damage to a thing only where the loss is at least 500 euros and the thing is ordinarily intended for private use or consumption and was mainly so used by the injured person. Article 3 defines a product as any kind of movable, including products of nature, parts that have become part of another movable or of an immovable, and electricity.
Article 4 treats as manufacturer whoever makes a finished product, a part of one or supplies a raw material, and whoever presents themselves as manufacturer by putting a name, trademark or other mark on a product. Article 4 also treats as manufacturer whoever imports a product into Iceland in the course of business to sell, rent or trade in it.
Under article 4, where the injured person cannot find out who made or imported a product, every distributor of it counts as its manufacturer unless the distributor names the manufacturer, importer or its own supplier without undue delay. A product is defective when it is not as safe as could legitimately be expected in all the circumstances, in particular how it was presented, the use that could reasonably be expected and when it was distributed.
Article 6 puts on the injured person the burden of proving the loss, the defect and the causal link between them. Article 7 frees the manufacturer from liability if it proves that it did not distribute the product, that making or distributing it was not in the course of business, that the defect is due to mandatory public rules on its design, or that the defect could not be found on the scientific and technical knowledge available when the product was distributed.
Article 8 caps a manufacturer's total liability for personal injury caused by identical products with the same defect at 70 million euros. Article 10 makes a distributor liable for loss under article 2 unless it shows the loss cannot be traced to its own fault or neglect. Article 11 makes two or more liable persons jointly and severally liable for the same loss. Article 12 bars agreements made before the loss that depart from the Act to the injured person's disadvantage.
Article 13 leaves the injured person's rights under the general rules on damages untouched. Article 14 time-bars a claim three years after the injured person learned or could have learned of the loss, the defect and the manufacturer's name and residence. Article 14 also extinguishes a claim that is not yet time-barred ten years after the manufacturer distributed the product. The Act entered into force on .
The Act does not apply to loss caused by a product that the manufacturer distributed before the Act entered into force. The Act was amended in 2014 by Act 3/2014.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app distributes a software product or ships a mobile app.