The AI Litigation Blueprint: Lessons for the UK from the EU's Evolving AI Class Action Landscape

As the EU AI Act moves into full enforcement and the revised Product Liability Directive (PLD) redefines strict liability for the digital age, the landscape for collective redress is being rewritten. For UK practitioners, the EU's "pro-consumer" initiative offers a critical roadmap and a warning-of the types of AI-driven class actions that we may see cross the Channel.

Join the Simmons & Simmons AI disputes team for a strategic panel session exploring how the interplay between the EU's risk-based AI regulation and its new liability frameworks is creating a "perfect storm” of mass litigation. We will examine the practical lessons for the UK from the EU's approach to "black box" complexity and the lowering of evidential hurdles.

The panel will open with an analysis of the EU's dual-track approach before discussing:

• The EU AI Act as an Evidence Generator: How non-compliance with the Act's obligations will produce evidence used by claimants.

• The PLD's "Presumption of Defectiveness": Lessons from the EU on shifting the burden of proof when AI systems are too complex for claimants to understand or explain .

• Software as a Tangible Risk: Understanding the move to treat standalone software and AI updates as "products" under strict liability regimes.

• The UK's Evolving Horizon: How the English courts and lawmakers may mirror or diverge from the EU's claimant-friendly disclosure rules and definitions of damage.

This panel event will be hosted in person at Simmons & Simmons' London office.