SwedenProduktansvarslag (1992:18), Product Liability Act (Directive 85/374/EEC)
In force since .
A product liability rule binding public and private bodies.
- Private right of action
- Yes
- Instrument type
- an act of a legislature
As of .
What it requires
- Standalone software is outside this Act; the Government's draft bill of August 2026 reads the Act as covering software only where it is integrated in a product and is a necessary condition for the product to work (Sec. 2).
- If you manufacture, produce or collect a product, import it into the European Economic Area to put it into circulation there, or market it as your own by adding your name, trade mark or another distinguishing mark, you answer for damage a safety deficiency in it causes (Sec. 6).
- Make the product as safe as can reasonably be expected, taking account of its foreseeable use, how you market it, its instructions for use, when you put it into circulation and other circumstances (Sec. 3).
- If the product does not show who made or imported it, name that person or your own supplier within one month after the injured person claims compensation, or you answer as if you were the producer (Sec. 7).
- Be ready to show that you did not put the product into circulation in a business, that the deficiency probably did not exist when you did, that it results from mandatory rules issued by an authority, or that scientific and technical knowledge then made it impossible to discover (Sec. 8).
- Do not rely on a contract term that limits liability under the Act: it has no effect (Sec. 5).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of . Also read by: Regeringen, Justitiedepartementet (guidance, recorded ).
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Guidance link
- https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/19fbea12d9f84881a8386013b1c315de/en-ny-produktansvarslag.pdf
- Guidance body
- Regeringen, Justitiedepartementet
- Open questions
- Has a Swedish court ruled on whether software supplied on its own is a product (a movable thing) under section 2 of Produktansvarslag (1992:18), which the Government's draft bill reads as outside the Act?
What this law does
The Government's draft bill of August 2026 says that Directive 85/374 was transposed into Swedish law mainly by Produktansvarslag (1992:18). Section 1 awards damages for personal injury that a product has caused because of a safety deficiency. Section 1 also awards damages for property damage to property usually intended for private use that the injured person mainly used for that purpose. Section 2 defines products under the Act as movable things.
Section 3 gives a product a safety deficiency if it is not as safe as can reasonably be expected. Section 6 makes liable whoever manufactured, produced or collected the damaging product and whoever imported it into the European Economic Area to put it into circulation there. Section 6 also makes liable whoever marketed the product as its own by adding its name, trade mark or another distinguishing mark.
Section 7 makes each person who supplied the product liable where it does not show who is liable under section 6, unless that person names the liable person. Section 7 requires that naming within one month after the injured person made a claim or otherwise asked for it.
Section 8 frees a person from liability who shows that the product was not put into circulation in a business, who makes it probable that the deficiency did not exist then, or who shows that the deficiency results from mandatory rules issued by an authority. Section 8 also frees a person who shows that the scientific and technical knowledge when the product was put into circulation made it impossible to discover the deficiency.
Section 5 makes contract terms that limit liability under the Act without effect. Section 9 deducts SEK 3,500 when compensation for property damage is determined. Section 10 reduces damages as is reasonable where fault on the injured person's side contributed to the damage. Section 12 requires an action within three years from when the claimant received or should have received knowledge that the claim could be made.
Section 12 also requires an action within ten years from when the alleged liable person put the damaging product into circulation. The Government's draft bill says that software can give rise to liability under the Act if it is integrated in a product and is a necessary condition for the product to work. The same draft says that standalone software falls outside the scope of the 1992 Act.
The draft says that product liability for electricity is to stay regulated in the Electrical Safety Act (elsäkerhetslagen). The transitional provisions state that the Act enters into force on . The Act is recorded as issued on . The register records the latest amendment as SFS 2022:263.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app distributes a software product or ships a mobile app.