Fehlerhafte Produkte - Haftung im Europäischen Binnenmarkt

The European Union member states, such as for example Germany and Slovakia, are the most im­ portant sales market for European motor vehicles, industrial equipment and machinery as well as for other investment and consumer goods. Inmost cases the distribution chain to the private or commercial end-customer goes through one or several inter­ mediaries. That gives rise to a number of questions regarding the liability between the individual agents inthedistribution chain aswellasliability to theend­ customer. For any entity involved in the production process the question of liability is of essential economic and legal importance for manufacturing the product and placing it on the market in the European Union . From the point of view of the manufacturer and of a potential insurer the interes­ ting question is which liability risks exist regarding the European end-customer. Beyond that there are basic questions for the business partners in the field of international procedural law. Tue present paper describes the specific product liability aspects that applybetween European business partners.