Product Liability: An evolving landscape in changing times

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• The Law Commission’s review of product liability laws in England and Wales during 2026, alongside the ongoing implementation of far-reaching reforms across Europe under the Product Liability Directive 2, provide the perfect opportunity to examine the current and future landscape of product liability in the English courts.

• As it has been almost 40 years since the introduction of the product liability regime, set out in Part 1 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, recent developments are a unique, once in a generation, opportunity to assess the landscape that may emerge in light of ongoing developments.

• The UK review takes place against the backdrop of far-reaching, claimant-friendly reforms to the parallel EU product liability regime resulting from the Product Liability Directive 2024, which Member States are required to implement by the end of 2026. This brings software/AI and other products into scope, expands the list of defendants who can be sued, reverses the burden of proof of defect and causation in some cases, introduces new discovery obligations which are unfamiliar to many Continental European legal systems and narrows the defences available.

• The importance of assessing the workability of the current product liability regime partly arises from a perception of uncertainty in the law as the range of available products – particularly in the context of digital technology and artificial intelligence– has transformed in the past decade. The advent of online platforms has also profoundly changed how consumers purchase products.

• In this context, we have lined up a stellar panel of experts in the field of product liability, with experience in handling cases in the UK and EU, to provide a well-informed debate from a range of perspectives.