This paper is about: Software product liability issues, software quality control and the developer's liability in the European Union as implemented in Germany, discussed on the example of autonomous vehicles.
Product liability is the responsibility a producer, as a legal person, has towards another subject, the consumer, with regard to an act. The producer is liable for the act of producing and/or placing a product on the market. The liability obligation in the case of product liability does not result from the contractual obligation between the contracting parties, in the sense of a disposition and executory agreement. Rather, it is a state intervention into the private autonomy, limiting the freedom of contract-design by law. Its purpose is to preventively protect consumers against damage caused by defective products. The legal liability of the producer for defective products is no dispositive law, which could be limited or even waived by agreement between parties. Product liability, together with legally prescribed warranty rights and voluntary guarantees are the foundation of consumer protection in the German legal system.
Table of contents
I. Bibliography
II. Liability as consumer protection
1. Definition of Liability and Product liability
2. Differentiation between product liability, guarantees, warranty rights, and producer liability
III. Product liability in the European Union
1. Product Liability and Consumer protection prior to the European Union
2. Relevance of consumer protection for the European Single Market
3. Need for harmonization of consumer protection law
IV. Origin and Content of the Product Liability Directive (85/374/ECC) 11
1. Legal basis of European Directives and EU-Law
a. Hierarchy of norms in the European Union in context of German Law
b. The legal basis of harmonized European law in Germany
2. Historical origin and implementation of the Product Liability Directive
a. Development of the European Directive (85/374/ECC)
b. European directives and their implementation in national law
3. Content and Scope of the EU-Directive and ProdHaftG
a. Scope of the EU Directive and ProdHaftG
b. Exclusion and limitation of liability
V. Software as a product within the meaning of the Product Liability Directive
1. Definition of software
a. Technical differentiation of software and hardware
b. Legal definition of software
VI. Interpretation of “Software” as a product
1. Legal Interpretation in conformity with EU Directives as Extension of the supranational ECJ Interpretation
2. Interpretation of the term "movable thing" in conformity with the Directive within the meaning of the Directive. Art. 2 EU Directive (85/374/ECC)
a. Software distributed via a data carrier
b. Online distributed Software
VII. Control of the safety of products
VIII. Autonomous vehicles
1. Classification in degree of automation
2. Opportunities and risks of autonomous driving
IX. Software updates as a product and moral obligation of the manufacturer
- Quote paper
- Anonymous,, 2022, Fundamentals of software law. Software product liability issues, software quality control and the developer's liability in the European Union, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/1316663