As it continues to build out its world leading digital reform package, the European Commission has proposed a new AI Liability Directive. This aims to harmonise certain national non-contractual civil liability rules to ensure that persons claiming compensation for the damage caused by an AI system enjoy similar protection as those incurring damage from other products. The proposal is closely linked to other pieces of EU legislation, in particular the proposed AI Act to which the AI Liability Directive consistently refers, as well as the Product Liability Directive.
New tort liability proposals
While the AI Act (read more) has a preventive scope (i.e., avoiding AI-related damage from occurring), the proposed AI Liability Directive has a compensatory scope (i.e., indemnifying those that have nonetheless suffered damage).
See this DigiLinks post for our analysis of the proposed AI Liability Directive: EU – Taking responsibility for artificial intelligence: New tort liability proposals (linklaters.com)
AI and product liability
You can also find more analysis in this ProductLiabilityLinks post on the proposals in the context of product liability law: Product Liability and AI (Part 3): Commission plans to overhaul EU product liability law
The Commission believes a new and specific regulatory framework is required due to the specific characteristics of AI, such as opacity, autonomous behaviour, complexity and limited predictability, all of which challenge the application of existing liability rules.
unknownx500
/Passle/5f6c57568cb62a0d7c9eadee/SearchServiceImages/2023-10-09-12-13-22-474-6523ee628759d5eb6b1264b2.jpg)
