Background
A system of strict product liability had developed in the U.S. by the early 1960s, but not in the United Kingdom or other European Union (EU) member states. The Council adopted a resolution in 1975 for a preliminary programme on consumer protection and information technology. Moves towards a strict liability regime in Europe began with the Council of Europe Convention on Products Liability in regard to Personal Injury and Death (the Strasbourg Convention) in 1977. The Pearson Commission in the UK noted that this work had started, and refrained from making their own recommendations. A second EU programme followed in 1981.
The preamble to the directive cites Art.100 (subsequently renumbered to Art.94) of the Treaty of the European Union and the aim to achieve a single market:
The Council shall, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, issue directives for the approximation of such laws, regulations or administrative provisions of the members states as directly affect the establishment of the common market.
The preamble then goes on:
... approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning the liability of the producer for damage caused by the defectiveness of his products is necessary because the existing divergences may distort competition and affect the movement of goods within the common market and entail a differing degree of protection of the consumer against damage caused by a defective product to his health or property;
... liability without fault on the part of the producer is the sole means of adequately solving the problem, peculiar to our age of increasing technicality, of a fair apportionment of the risks inherent in modern technological production;
Read more about this topic: Product Liability Directive
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