The proposed European Union civil liability framework for artificial intelligence

Abstract

The omnipresence of fast-growing technologies in our everyday life became necessary for the functioning of the economy and society. Namely the fast development of Artificial Intelligence in many fields like health and agriculture, leads us to a general interrogation of whether artificial intelligence could be a threat to humankind. However, to prevent harmful use of artificial intelligence the law needs to intervene by setting clear legal boundaries on which ways the recourse of Artificial intelligence can be allowed and when damage is caused to condemn the responsible ones. This no man’s land field law challenges national authorities as well as the European Union. Thus, with a precise objective policy the European Commission presented on the 28th of September 2022 a legislative package, composed of a proposal for a Directive on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules for damages caused by AI (AILD), and of a second proposal for a revision of the Product Liability Directive 85/374/EEC (PLD). The prevailing intent of this dissertation is to provide a critical legal analysis of this new civil liability regime applicable to AI and to assess whether it allows a sufficient and uniform consumer protection across the Member States, as intended by the European Commission. The first chapter focuses on the explanation of the reasons and objectives motivated by the European Union to implement new civil liability specific to the involvement of artificial intelligence. The second chapter inquires into the analysis of the AILD, a particular focus will be made on the requirements to establish the fault-based liability. Nevertheless, this chapter lastly explores the unclarity of the terms present in the proposal causing beaches in the proposed civil liability scheme. Lastly, the last chapter delves on the proposal revising the Product liability Directive and how the strict liability regime can be established in a compensation claim because of damages caused by an artificial intelligence product.