Summary

An injured party who wishes to file a claim for the compensation for damage under the product liability rules must identify the person whom he or she considers liable. The related issues have been substantiated or specified in several judgments of the Court of Justice. In the legal system of the European Union, the body implementing Estonian national law is obliged to interpret a national provision in the light of and according to the purpose of European Union law. To date, there are no judgments regarding product liability in Estonian judicial practice. One of the reasons for the lack of national case-law can be the fact that the judicial practice is unable to recognise all the opportunities entailed by the application of that type of liability. To open up the nature and applicability of the product liability rules, the author discusses in detail issues related to the identification of the person liable based on the product liability directive and the law applicable in Estonia and with due regard to the judgments made by the Court of Justice on product liability over the past years. In addition to individuals covered by the notion of a ‘producer’, the foundations of the liability of a service provider are also discussed. The article delimits the circle of potentially liable persons and pinpoints the conditions that have to be met to give rise to liability for an individual covered by the notion of a producer. Because of the choice of topic, the article will not go in further detail about the limitations precluding product liability, or the criteria for product defects and their identification.