SwedenLagrådsremiss En ny produktansvarslag (proposed Produktansvarslag), Implementation of Directive (EU) 2024/2853
Lagrådsremiss En ny produktansvarslag
Approved by the executive for transmission to the legislature, dated , as of .
A product liability rule binding public and private bodies.
- Private right of action
- Yes
As of .
Where it has got to
The text described here is Lagrådsremiss En ny produktansvarslag, published .
Locally, this stage is lagrådsremiss.
The stage above is recorded at www.regeringen.se.
On the Government decided to obtain the opinion of the Council on Legislation on the draft act.
What it requires
- The draft Produktansvarslag excludes free and open-source software that you develop or supply outside a business activity (Ch. 1, Sec. 1).
- If you develop, manufacture or produce a product, software included, or put your name, trade mark or another mark on it to present yourself as its maker, you answer as its manufacturer for damage a safety deficiency in it causes (Ch. 1, Sec. 4; Ch. 3, Sec. 1).
- Keep supplying the software updates and upgrades needed to keep the product safe while it is within your control: a deficiency due to your software or a related service is not excused because it arose after you placed the product on the market (Ch. 1, Sec. 4; Ch. 3, Sec. 5, second paragraph).
- Meet the product safety rules that apply to your product: they count in deciding whether it has a safety deficiency, and failing a rule meant to prevent the damage presumes a deficiency (Ch. 2, Secs. 2 and 4).
- Account for what your product learns or acquires after release: the effect of any ability to keep learning or to acquire new features is weighed in deciding whether it has a safety deficiency (Ch. 2, Sec. 2(4)).
- Be ready to produce a document or an object when a court orders it under the Code of Judicial Procedure; failing to do so presumes the product has a safety deficiency (Ch. 2, Sec. 4(1)).
- If you manufacture outside the European Economic Area, your importer, your representative or, where there is neither, your provider of distribution services answers for the product (Ch. 3, Sec. 1(3) and (4)).
- If you substantially change a product outside its manufacturer's control and then supply it, you answer as its manufacturer (Ch. 3, Sec. 4).
- If you distribute a product, or provide an online platform that lets a consumer conclude a distance contract with a trader, refer the injured person to the liable person established in the European Economic Area or to your own supplier within one month, or you answer for the product (Ch. 3, Secs. 2 and 3).
- Be able to show that you did not put the product on the market, that the deficiency probably did not exist then, that it results from compliance with product safety rules, or that scientific and technical knowledge made it impossible to discover (Ch. 3, Sec. 5).
- Do not rely on a contract term that is worse for the injured person than the Act: it has no effect against that person (Ch. 1, Sec. 5).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
What this law does
The Government's referral to the Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) of a proposed Produktansvarslag is dated . The Government decided to obtain the opinion of the Council on Legislation on the draft Produktansvarslag. The draft act implements Directive (EU) 2024/2853. The Government proposes that the new Produktansvarslag replace the 1992 Act. The proposed act would enter into force on .
Chapter 1, section 3 of the proposed act defines a product as a movable thing or software. The definition also covers a digital file that holds the information needed to manufacture a product by automated control of machines or tools. The draft excludes damage caused by a safety deficiency in free and open-source software that has been developed or supplied outside a business activity.
Chapter 2, section 1 awards damages for personal injury, for property damage to property not used exclusively for professional purposes, and for pure economic loss from the loss or corruption of data used exclusively for personal purposes. Chapter 2, section 4 presumes a product to have a safety deficiency if the person alleged to be liable does not comply with an order under the Code of Judicial Procedure to produce written evidence or an object for inspection.
Chapter 2, section 5 presumes that a damage was caused by a safety deficiency if the damage is of a kind that typically corresponds to the deficiency. Chapter 3, section 1 makes the manufacturer of the damaging product liable. Chapter 3, section 1 also makes an importer of the product or a representative of the manufacturer liable where the manufacturer is established outside the European Economic Area.
Chapter 3, section 1 makes a provider of distribution services liable where the manufacturer is established outside the European Economic Area and there is neither an importer nor a representative established inside it. Chapter 3, section 2 makes a distributor liable where the product does not show who is liable under section 1 or where that person is established outside the European Economic Area.
Chapter 3, section 2 requires the distributor's referral to a liable person within one month from receiving a claim for damages or a request for a referral. Chapter 3, section 3 applies the distributor rule to a provider of an online platform that enabled the injured person to conclude a distance contract with a trader for the damaging product.
Chapter 3, section 5 frees a person from liability who shows that, given scientific and technical knowledge when the product was put on the market, or while it was under the manufacturer's control, the deficiency could not be discovered. The second paragraph of Chapter 3, section 5 withdraws points 3 and 4 of its first paragraph if the deficiency is due to the product's software or a related service and the product was within the manufacturer's control when the deficiency arose.
Chapter 5, section 1 requires an action within three years from when the injured person knew or reasonably should have known of the damage, the safety deficiency and an operator who may be liable. Chapter 5, section 1 also requires an action within ten years from when the damaging product was put on the market or into service.
Chapter 5, section 1 allows an action for a latent personal injury after those ten years if the injured person was prevented from suing in time because of the nature of the injury. That latent injury action must be brought within 25 years from when the period began to run. The draft's transitional provisions repeal the 1992 Act. The repealed Act is to continue to apply to products put on the market or into service before the entry into force.
The Riksdag's calendar of planned business lists a committee report titled En ny produktansvarslag, 2026/27:CU4, for the plenary sitting of .
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.