Produktehaftpflichtgesetz (PrHG), Liability for Defective Products

The Produktehaftpflichtgesetz (PrHG) is the Liechtenstein act on liability for defective products, and it was published in the Landesgesetzblatt on 14 January 1993. Article 1, paragraph 1 makes the manufacturer liable for the damage where a defective product leads to a person being killed or injured, or to damage to or destruction of a thing that is ordinarily intended for private use or consumption and was mainly used privately by the injured person.

Article 1, paragraph 2 excludes liability for damage to the defective product itself. Article 2 treats as manufacturer the manufacturer of the final product, of a raw material or of a component, and anyone who presents itself as the manufacturer by putting its name, trade mark or another mark of identification on the product.

Article 3 also treats as manufacturer a person who imports a product into the European Economic Area for sale, hire, hire-purchase or another form of distribution in the course of its business. Article 4, paragraph 1 treats each supplier as the manufacturer where the manufacturer cannot be identified, unless the supplier names the manufacturer or its own supplier to the injured person within a reasonable time after being asked.

Article 4, paragraph 2 applies the same rule to an imported product whose importer cannot be identified, even if the manufacturer is named. Article 5, paragraph 1 defines a product as any movable thing, even one that forms part of another movable or of an immovable, and electricity. Article 6, paragraph 1 makes a product defective if it does not offer the safety that one is entitled to expect, taking all circumstances into account.

Article 6, paragraph 1 names among those circumstances the presentation of the product, the use that can reasonably be expected and the time at which the product was put into circulation. Article 6, paragraph 2 provides that a product is not defective merely because an improved product was put into circulation later.

Article 7, paragraph 1 frees the manufacturer who proves that it did not put the product into circulation, that the circumstances indicate the defect did not yet exist when it did so, that the product was not made for sale or another form of distribution with an economic purpose or in the course of its professional activity, that the defect is due to the product complying with mandatory rules issued by the public authorities, or that the defect could not be recognised according to the state of science and technology when the product was put into circulation.

Article 7, paragraph 2 frees the manufacturer of a raw material or a component who proves that the defect was caused by the design of the product it went into or by the instructions of that product's manufacturer. Article 7a makes several persons who are liable answerable jointly and severally. Article 7b, paragraph 1 provides that the manufacturer's liability is not reduced where the damage was caused by a defect in the product and at the same time by the act of a third party.

Article 7b, paragraph 2 applies section 1304 of the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch by analogy where the injured person, or someone whose conduct the injured person must answer for, is at fault. Article 8, paragraph 1 makes the injured person bear damage to things up to 900 francs themselves. Article 8, paragraph 2 has the Government adjust that amount where the deductible is changed in the law of the European Economic Area.

Article 9 makes void an agreement that limits or excludes liability under the Act towards the injured person. Article 10 sets a limitation period of three years from the day the injured person knew or should have known of the damage, the defect and the identity of the manufacturer. Article 11, paragraph 1 extinguishes claims under the Act ten years after the manufacturer put the product that caused the damage into circulation.

Article 11, paragraph 2 provides that the claim is not extinguished where court proceedings against the manufacturer are pending. Article 12, paragraph 1 applies the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch to the claims for compensation that the Act provides, except where the Act provides otherwise.

Article 12, paragraph 2 leaves untouched the provisions of the Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch and other rules under which damage is compensated to a wider extent or to other persons than under the Act. Article 12, paragraph 3 excludes damage from a nuclear incident to which an international convention ratified by the States of the European Economic Area applies. Article 13 applies the Act only to products put into circulation after it entered into force.

Article 14 provides that the Act enters into force on 1 November 1994. The consolidated text records that Article 14 was amended in 1994, that Articles 7a and 7b were inserted in 1997 and that the second paragraph of Article 5 was repealed in 2001. The Systematic Register of Liechtenstein legislation records three changes to the Act, the last of them published in 2001.