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Prediction: Germany: The green deal will change the landscape in product recall claims once again

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There were times when recalls were the final means of mitigating risk to life and limb, but those times seem gone. Art. 35 of the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) install a ‘right to remedy’ so that consumers have to be offered an “effective, cost-free and timely remedy” consisting of repair, replacement or even refund of the value of the recalled product from 13 December 2024 onwards. As inconsistent with warranty rules as it is, Art. 35 GPSR is founded on an existing safety risk. EU Green Deal law such as the EU Deforestation Regulation will invoke a necessity for recalls upon violation of ESG-driven criteria, no matter whether that establishes a safety risk or not (the latter being the case in the majority of violations). Recall insurers will have to decide whether they want to cover these (pure business) risks, even though products are non-defective and safe, and thus take up what looks like a D&O risk.