Developers Alliance co-signed a joint industry statement on the revision of the Directive on Liability for Defective Products (PLD), as the inter-institutional negotiations have just started.
October 26, 2023 – The Alliance and our industry partners make several suggestions for keeping a balanced approach in order not to hamper innovation in the software sector and to avoid overburdening developers:
Key Points
- The scope should only cover software proportionately to the extent to which software is essential to the functioning of a product into which it is embedded or with which it is interconnected.
- The newly added harms (data loss, corruption of data, and psychological harms) need to be measurable so that judicial authorities and companies avoid facing excessive legal action.
- The conditions for disclosure obligations should meet a higher threshold to protect trade secrets and limit excessive litigation.
- The alleviation of the burden of proof cannot be solely based on the complexity of a product, as it would amount to a de facto reversal of the burden of proof for technological products or AI.
- Cybersecurity flaws should not be considered a defect unless there is a breach of relevant EU and national law.
- Software manufacturers should not be liable beyond the expected life cycle of the software.
The full statement can be read here.
The following quote can be attributed to Karina Nimară, Director of EU Policy of the Developers Alliance:
“We call on the Council and the European Parliament to take account of those amendments that respond to the concerns of the software industry. A burdensome liability regime for technological products, including AI, will have a foreseeable negative impact on the cost of doing business for software developers and the prices for consumers in the EU.”
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The Developers Alliance is the world’s leading advocate for software developers and the companies invested in their success. Alliance members include industry leaders in consumer, enterprise, industrial, and emerging software development, and a global network of more than 75,000 developers.
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