Under Italian Law, product liability is a form of consumer protection in the event of defective products.
Product liability in Italy complies with the legal framework of the EU, implemented into the Consumer Code.
According to the Consumer Code, a product is defective when it does not offer the security that can be reasonably expected, taking into account all the circumstances. Consequently, a defective product is, ultimately, a product which use is not safe.
The safety of the product is assessed according to the circumstances of the way in which the product was put into circulation, its presentation, its characteristics, instructions, given warnings and the final user of the product.
To protect the consumer, the law provides that products or product packages shall display in a clear and understandable way warnings about the presence of any harmful substances or materials. In fact, a product cannot be considered unsafe and thus defective itself only because it contains harmful materials or substances.
In Italy, therefore, the consumer is protected by the possibility of obtaining compensation for damages, caused by a defective product, whose liability can be claimed directly against the manufacturer, for three types of defect:
- Manufacturing defects: concerning an error in the production process;
- Design defects: concerning an error in the project phase of the product;
- Inadequate information: concerning the failure to provide the information to be to the consumer of the product.
Compensation is possible both where the damage relates to personal injury and where it relates to the destruction or deterioration of private assets.
Our team of lawyers usually assists foreign clients in both civil and criminal aspects of product liability.
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