Adapting EU Liability Rules to the Digital Age and Artificial Intelligence: The 2021–2022 Public Consultation

This chapter discusses the public consultation (October 2021 to January 2022) on how to improve the current Product Liability Directive (PLD) and how to address the challenges that artificial intelligence poses for liability rules. In particular, following the European Commission’s 2021 Inception Impact Assessment (IIA) “Adapting liability rules to the digital age and circular economy”, the aim of the Commission’s 2021–2022 public consultation was to confirm the relevance of the issues identified by the 2018 evaluation of the Product Liability Directive (i.e. how to apply the Product Liability Directive to products in the digital and circular economy), and collect information and opinions on how to improve the PLD. In addition, the consultation specifically dealt with AI-related issues, exploring further the major problems connected with certain types of AI, which make it difficult for the victim/injured party to obtain compensation. The European Commission put forward proposed policy measures to address those issues related specifically to damage caused by AI systems, covering both the Product Liability Directive and national civil liability rules.