The New Product Liability Directive: Paving the Way for Follow-On Actions in Artificial Intelligence Law?

In 2024, two pieces of legislation were adopted in the EU to create a new legal framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI): the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and the revised Product Liability Directive (PLD 2024). Although these legal acts do not explicitly build upon each other, they are closely interlinked. While the AI Act is intended to ensure, ex-ante, a high level of protection for health, safety and fundamental rights, the revised PLD 2024 aims to ensure , ex-post, that claimants enjoy the same level of protection regardless of the technology involved. Since both legal acts apply in parallel, this paper analyzes whether a provider or manufacturer who breaches the AI Act can be held liable under the PLD 2024 in a follow-on action for the resulting damage .