Economic operators who import products in the European Union have to comply with numerous legal regulations for the protection of health and safety of persons. In the event of violation of statutory provisions for product safety they will face liability risks, such as sanctions of the market surveillance authorities, expenses for corrective measures and compensation claims made by involved persons in their distribution and supply chains.
The law firm offers legal advice to producers, importers and distributors with regard to statutory requirements for product conformity, so they can produce and place their goods on the market with legal certainty. The legal advice applies to physical products and products with digital elements for commercial applications and to consumer products as well.
You receive legal advice regarding certain safety obligations that concern your product portfolio, especially with regard to labelling and monitoring duties. Furthermore, the law firm offers the tailor-made design of your contractual agreements. It takes especially contractual options into consideration that may limit your liability risks along the value chain. This includes for example agreements for commodities and raw materials procurement, collaborative production or distribution of goods and components. The legal services also comprise the design of product relevant service agreements, especially for fulfilment service providers.
Such market players that sell goods within the EU or import them from third countries receive legal information about Union harmonized legislation that is applicable on their activities depending from their role in supply chains. That includes for example national and European provisions for the free movement of goods, certain product-related obligations, such as duties of the extended producer responsibility, and the obligation to appoint an authorized representative.
In case of product hazards, the law firm provides legal support for an effective implementation of appropriate corrective measures and reporting obligations. If required, it represents you legally for the enforcement of legal claims and defence against liability claims.
In addition, the legal consulting refers to recent statutory changes and current legislative procedures relating to product safety and prospective liability-related laws in Germany and in the EU. Thereby you can proactively adjust to new provisions applicable on your business activities and obtain successfully a compliant implementation in your enterprise.
The law firm offers legal advice to manufacturers, importers and distributors regarding liability risks for defective goods that may cause compensation claims in case of damages. The counselling services includes the statutory liability for product defects that may occur in individual or serial manufacturing processes, especially according to the German Product Liability Act. Furthermore, you receive legal information about respective safety obligations that apply to the producers´ liability.
In particular, the law firm examines product-related contracts, such as purchase and delivery agreements, general terms and provisions and commercial warranty declarations. It designs liability related contractual provisions with the objective to avoid claims for damages and to reduce potential claims in your favour, for example by contractual terms for exemption from liability or by assurances and self-declarations of suppliers.
Moreover, the law firm offers legal representation for a judicial and extrajudicial assertion of product-related claims, especially warranty rights of subsequent delivery, repair, reductions, withdrawal or compensation as well as recourse claims in supply chains.
You also receive legal information about liability-relevant legislation in Europe and Germany, for example regarding a new European product liability directive that aims to extend the statutory liability of producers on digital products, especially software. In addition, the legal counselling refers to the planned regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market and to the European Corporate Due Diligence Directive (CDDD).
The legal framework of the EU has the objective to achieve for consumer products and commercial goods a high safety level. Thereby, economic operators are obliged to place only safe goods on the market. They have to fulfil statutory requirements for product safety and must take appropriate precautions to reduce risks of product hazards. This includes preventive measures, for example sampling inspections or safety marking of goods, packaging and product manuals with certain hazard warnings or safety instructions.
For certain industrial product categories, such as chemicals, batteries or machines, and to consumer goods, such as textiles, toys, detergents and cleansers or cosmetics, special rules apply, for example the CLP Regulation, REACH Regulation and the Regulation on Machinery with the objective to minimize the risk of damages caused by dangerous products. Thereby, manufacturers, authorized representatives and importers are obliged to take different measures to warrant the quality and safety of products, such as conformity assessment procedures or the CE-marking of goods.
The legal counselling services comprise statutory safety regulations that are relevant for your product range. It also supports you to implement the legal provisions in your enterprise with legal validity, so you can make products available on the market with legal conformity. The services include the contractual design of safety-relevant agreements to reduce the liability risks of product hazard, for example by guarantees, certifications and assurances by suppliers.
Furthermore, you receive current legal information with regard to prospective laws and new legal regulations, such as the European regulation on general product safety. It stipulates that economic operators must set up internal processes to increase the safety of goods. In addition, providers of online marketplaces must fulfil due diligence obligations to reduce the risks of dangerous products, for example by publication of recall information, by designation of a single point of contact for consumers or by providing information about safety notes via online interfaces.
If product hazard occurs, the law firm supports you with legal advice to take appropriate corrective measures, such as withdrawal, recall, remedies like repair and safety warnings via safety rapid alert systems or portals.
If required, you receive legal consulting with regard to European and national labelling provisions for products, tabs, packaging or instruction manuals.
The legal information refers to mandatory product labels, for example the Unique Formular Identifier (UFI), International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI), BAuA-Registration numbers, hazard symbols or CE marks. In addition, it comprises labels which are required due to the extended producer responsibility, especially waste disposal information or recycling symbols for certain product groups.
Furthermore, you receive legal counsel relating to the legal admissibility of voluntary labels like seals, certificates, merchandise or origin labels.
Moreover, the law firm accompanies the required legal implementation of new labelling provisions, for example in relation to the digital product passport according to Ecodesign regulations.
Due to the technological progress, more products contain innovative technologies, such as smart functions and digital connections. That relates to products with digital elements that require software programs or digital services for operation as well as AI supported products.
As these technologies contain considerable risks for product safety and cyber security, the EU extends the legal framework and develops new laws, directives and regulations with the scope to reduce the risks of damages by technology.
The law firm informs you about recent and planned legislation in Germany and in the EU regarding modern technologies. That includes the national implementation of the EU-NIS-directive, but also the scheduled EU-regulation with harmonized rules on artificial intelligence, AI Act. It imposes the legal framework for a safe use of AI-systems and provides certain obligation for economic operators that place such systems on the market, use them or put them into operation.
In addition, the law firm offers legal advice regarding the legislative proposal of an European directive on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence (AI Liability Directive). It aims to adjust consisting liability rules to the complex features of AI-systems and provides to facilitate burden of proof measures for compensation by disclosure and rebuttable presumptions.
Moreover, you receive legal information about the draft law of an EU-Regulation on horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements. Its objective is the reduction of hardware- and software products containing vulnerabilities that are placed on the market. Therefore, producer must ensure a high common level of cybersecurity during the whole life cycle of products, whereas the interests of SME shall be taken in consideration at the level of fees for conformity assessment processes.
Furthermore, the law firm offers legal counselling with regard to the prospective European directive on liability for defective products. It provides that non-conformity with cybersecurity requirements is deemed as product defect for which manufacturers shall be liable.
The legal consulting services also relate to the following legal aspects:
Get in touch with the law firm to receive more information about the legal consulting services.