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As products have become more complex in the digital age, the need for a new directive on liability of defective products has arisen. The new directive will revise the existing Product Liability Directive, adopted nearly 40 years ago in 1985. The directive brings the European Union's product liability regime up to speed with the digital age, circular economy business models and global value chains by ensuring that consumers receive compensation for defective products, including those manufactured ...

Online commerce is a defining feature of the modern world. It opens up opportunities for consumers and businesses alike. For consumers, it can mean a wider choice of goods and services at cheaper prices. For business, it offers new ways to reach larger markets. The borderless nature of online commerce means that, today, such opportunities within the EU are also open to businesses from elsewhere, and this phenomenon has been on the rise in recent years. Many consumers are familiar now with the advantages ...

New technologies come with new risks, and the impact of cyber-attacks through digital products has increased dramatically in recent years. Consumers are increasingly falling victim to security flaws linked to digital products such as baby monitors, robo-vacuum cleaners, Wi-Fi routers and alarm systems. For businesses, the importance of ensuring that digital products in the supply chain are secure has become pivotal, considering three in five vendors have already lost money as a result of product ...

On 9 December 2022, 20 years after the signature of the EU-Chile Association Agreement in 2002, the EU and Chile reached an agreement in principle on a new EU-Chile Advanced Framework Agreement, which comprises modernised trade and political and cooperation pillars. Negotiations were launched in November 2017, based on a Council negotiating mandate, which was the first-ever to have been published prior to the start of negotiations. Although the trade pillar had operated smoothly and led to an expansion ...

This infographic provides insight into the economic performance of China compared with the European Union (EU) and examines the trade dynamics between them. In 2023, while China's GDP growth rate has returned to increase against the previous year, Europe's GDP growth rate continues to decline and stands at 0.6 percent. Both countries' inflation rates are down from the prior year, but Europe's rate remains at 6.3 percent while China's is at 0.2 percent. Over the last decade, trade between the EU and ...

The UK's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020 was followed by a period of tense relations, mainly around the issues concerning implementation of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. The economic consequences of Brexit started to materialise. In 2023, the new UK government of Rishi Sunak agreed with the EU on the Windsor Framework, designed to find solutions to issues related to the implementation of the Protocol. A period of gradually improving relations ensued. Russia's war of aggression ...

Economic security has become crucial for the EU. Both the Letta Report on the future of the single market and the Draghi Report on the future of European competitiveness emphasise the need to intensify efforts to secure the EU's supply of critical raw materials (CRM). Europe is vulnerable to both coercion and geo-economic fragmentation because of its high dependency on strategic raw materials from countries with which the EU is not strategically aligned. Diversifying imports of strategic raw materials ...

Under the EU's landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), large social media platforms have pledged to take greater responsibility for curbing harmful and deceptive content. Despite this, information manipulation campaigns continue to unfold. On 6 December, Romania became the first EU country to cancel an election over foreign interference, following reports about information manipulation on TikTok. During the December 2024 plenary session, the Commission is due to make a statement on mis- and disinformation ...

The UNCITRAL Mauritius Convention aims to improve transparency in treaty-based investor-state arbitration. Parliament is due to vote on giving consent to the Council's conclusion of the Mauritius Convention on transparency, on behalf of the EU, which will also allow EU Member States to ratify on their own behalf.

On 28 July 2023, the European Commission adopted a proposal to revise EU toy safety legislation, by introducing a new regulation and repealing Directive 2009/48/EC. The proposal pursues two main objectives: a higher level of child protection, including from the most harmful substances; and fewer non-compliant and unsafe toys on the EU market. In relation to the first objective, the proposal extends the definition of health to children's psychological and mental health and to their wellbeing and cognitive ...