The product safety liability you cannot contract out of

The General Product Safety Law of 2025, published in Official Gazette No. 5045 on 4 July 2025. It applies Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety in Cyprus. Section 3 gives the Law the same subject matter and scope as the Regulation, so the substantive safety rules are the Regulation's and what the Law adds is the machinery: who enforces, with what powers, and at what cost.

Section 26 designates the Consumer Protection Service of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry as the single point of contact under Article 25(2) of the Regulation. Sections 5 to 14 give it the market surveillance powers, and section 8 allows it to buy a sample of a product in order to test it, which means a purchase can be made without identifying itself first.

Section 18(1) allows a fine of up to EUR 30,000 for any of the contraventions listed in section 17, and up to EUR 60,000 for a subsequent contravention. Section 18(2) adds up to EUR 500 for each day a contravention continues after a fine has been imposed, according to its gravity.

Section 19(1) requires the amount to be calculated according to the nature, gravity and duration of the contravention. Section 19(2) requires a reasoned decision, taken after the person concerned or a representative has been heard orally or in writing. A hierarchical appeal lies under section 20, and section 19(4) provides that the fine is collected only once the seventy five day period for a recourse to the Administrative Court has passed without one being filed.

Six things. Making a product available on the market that does not conform to the Law, the Regulation or the Regulations made under it. Failing to comply with a notice served under section 13. Failing to comply with obligations under the Law or the Regulations. Failing to give the authority documents or information about the product, where it is and how much of it has been placed or stored, within the time set, or obstructing that process, or giving false or misleading information or documents about the safety assessment. Deliberately obstructing an authorised officer or a customs officer. And failing to comply with the duties set by Regulation (EU) 2023/988.

Section 21 makes it an offence, independently of any administrative fine, to make available a product presenting a serious risk to the health and safety of persons, to the environment or to public safety; to fail to comply with a notice issued under sections 13 and 14; to give false, misleading or inaccurate particulars, information or documents to the authority; or to fail to comply with section 12(7).

On a first conviction, imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding EUR 100,000, or both. On a second or subsequent conviction, imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine not exceeding EUR 150,000, or both.

Yes, and section 25 says so directly. Subsection (1) makes breach of the general safety requirement, and of any other obligation under the Regulation, the Law or the Regulations and Orders made under it, a civil wrong under the Civil Wrongs Law as against any person who may suffer damage from that breach. Subsection (2) gives the injured person a right of action, subject to the legal principles that apply to actions for breach of statutory duty.

No. Section 25(3) provides that liability under subsections (1) and (2) cannot be limited or excluded by any contractual term, by any notice, or by any other provision. A supply agreement, a set of terms and conditions or a sign on a wall does not reach it.

Section 25(4) defines it narrowly: damage means bodily injury or death. Section 25 is not a route to recover economic loss or the price of the product. It is the route for the person the product hurt.

Section 32(1) repeals the General Product Safety Laws of 2004 to 2010 from the date the new Law came into force. Subsections (2) to (5) save what was made under them: regulations, notifications and other regulatory administrative acts are treated as made under the new Law and continue in force so far as they do not conflict with it; a reference in any document to a provision of the repealed laws is read as a reference to the corresponding provision of the new one; and a notice or decision issued under the repealed laws continues until it is annulled, suspended or expires.

Section 28 provides that consumers and other interested parties may submit complaints to the authority. Section 16 gives an interested person a hierarchical appeal against a decision of the authority, which matters to the business on the other side of a complaint as much as to the person making it.