May Cause Liability – Use Care When Using the Internet of Things
Silvia De Conca, Ioana Bratu, Mark R. Leiser, Zac Cooper · 2022
On September 28, 2022, the EU Commission published the first draft of its package to harmonise and reform liability rules in relation to damages caused by AI. The package also deals with liability issues in relation to the circular economy and pharmaceutical products, but for the purposes of this overview, we will primarily focus on those provisions regulating damages deriving from AI systems, smart and digital products, and software in general.The package is the result of roughly four years of work by the EU Parliament and the Commission, comprised of reports from internal and external experts (such as the Expert Group on Liability and New Technologies from DG Justice) and consultations with stakeholders.The package is composed of two drafts: the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence (AI Liability Directive), and the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on liability for defective products, this latter repealing Directive 85/374/EEC (Product Liability Directive or PLD). The AI Liability Directive and the new PLD should be seen as complementary to the proposal for the AI Act, which regulates the design, implementation, and use of AI systems.