Product Liability

Part I of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, titled 'Product Liability', provides that '[s]ubject to the following provisions of this Part, where any damage is caused wholly or partly by a defect in a product, every person to whom subsection (2) below applies shall be liable for the damage.' Section 2(2) applies this liability to the producer of the product, to anyone who has held themselves out as the producer (for example by branding), and to anyone who has imported the product into the United Kingdom for supply in the course of business. Where more than one person is liable for the same damage, section 2(5) provides that 'their liability shall be joint and several.' The Act was enacted to implement the EU product liability Directive of 1985, and defines 'product' to mean 'any goods or electricity', including a product comprised within another product as a component or raw material.

Liability under Part I turns on whether the product was 'defective', not on proof of the producer's negligence. Section 3 provides that 'there is a defect in a product for the purposes of this Part if the safety of the product is not such as persons generally are entitled to expect', taking into account all the circumstances, including how and for what purposes the product was marketed, its instructions and warnings, and what might reasonably be expected to be done with it. Section 4 sets out statutory defences, including that the defect is attributable to compliance with a legal requirement, that the state of scientific and technical knowledge at the relevant time was not such that the defect could have been discovered (the 'development risks' defence), or that the product was not supplied in the course of a business. Section 7 provides that this liability cannot be limited or excluded by any contract term, notice, or other provision.