Product Liability Directive (PLD)

(37) In order to ensure that injured persons have an enforceable claim for compensation where a manufacturer of a product is established outside the Union, it should be possible to hold the importer of that product and the authorised representative of the manufacturer, appointed in relation to specified tasks under Union legislation, for example under product safety and market surveillance legislation, liable. Market surveillance has shown that supply chains sometimes involve economic operators whose novel form means that they do not fit easily into traditional supply chains under the existing legal framework. Such is the case, in particular, with fulfilment service providers, which perform many of the same functions as importers but which might not always correspond to the traditional definition of importer in Union law. Fulfilment service providers play an increasingly significant role as economic operators, enabling and facilitating access to the Union market for products from third countries. That shift in relevance is already reflected in the product safety and market surveillance framework, in particular Market Surveillance Regulation ( 12 ) and (EU) 2023/988 ( 13 ) of the European Parliament and of the Council. Therefore, it should be possible to hold fulfilment service providers liable, but given the subsidiary nature of their role, they should be liable only where no importer or authorised representative is established in the Union. In the interests of channelling liability in an effective manner towards manufacturers, importers, authorised representatives and fulfilment service providers, it should be possible to hold distributors liable only where they fail to promptly identify a relevant economic operator established in the Union.