Study evaluating the status quo and the legal implications of third party liability for the European security industry

Third party liability has been identified as an issue that could adversely impact the European security industry. Limitless third party liability for security product and services is believed to have the potential to reduce investments in innovation. In the US, the Safety Act (which is further discussed in Section 3, below) has been enacted to empower the government to provide protection against liability exposure. This development has convinced the EU to examine the legal implications of third party liability of the security industry and possible policy options. To this end, the Commission, DG ENTR, has commissioned this study, which has been carried out by METRO (University of Maastricht), ECTIL, and Hunton & Williams. The main objectives of this study are: To collect, analyze and assess data from various legal sources and actual best practices related to the field of third party liability; To provide a comprehensive overview on the current status of third party liability-related legal implications for security industry, To provide a portfolio of feasible policy options for the Commission to address these implications effectively, taking into account that the findings and their respective easoning will present the potential basis for wideranging policy decisions by the European Commission. Thus, this study focuses on understanding the third party liability exposure of the EU-based Security Industry (SI), analyzes the US Safety Act and its context, and identifies policy options relating to the SI’s liability exposure.