Product liability in Canada: who is at fault?

Updated: December 15, 2025

Every manufacturer, producer, advertiser, and seller owes a certain degree of care to its customers regarding the safety of its products. When this duty of care is violated, the laws on product liability tell us who is responsible and what remedies are available to buyers.

In this article, we will discuss Canada’s product liability laws to help both businessowners and consumers. For more information about these laws, consult our Lexpert-ranked product liability litigation lawyers.

What is product liability?

Product liability is the legal responsibility of businesses that produce or sell defective products that cause harm to consumers or their property. Businesses may be required to compensate for:

• injuries suffered by consumers
• damage to a consumer’s property

Product liability claims

Defective products give rise to a product liability claim. If proven, Canadian law can hold the defendant liable for damages in favour of the plaintiff, along with any other remedies the court may impose

Product liability claims are based on the defendant’s lack of due care or negligence. Defendants in these cases can be any of the following:

• manufacturer
• producer
• distributor
• advertiser
• seller or retailer

On the other hand, plaintiffs may include purchasers of the defective product or, if a death occurs, their estates or heirs.”

Watch this video to learn about who can be liable for product liability claims:

Get in touch with the best product liability litigation lawyers in Canada as ranked by Lexpert to know more about product liability laws.

What are Canada’s product liability laws?

There are several Canadian laws that guide businesses and consumers on product liability. These are a combination of the following:

• Federal laws on product safety
• Provincial and territorial product liability laws
• Common law on product liability

Matthew Baer, one of the lawyers at McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP, shares insights into Canada’s product liability laws.

“Product liability generally focuses on injuries from defective products. The focus is usually on negligence, although there is also provincial consumer legislation, which can be relied upon.”

He adds that product liability claims become the basis of class actions lawsuits in Canada.

“Since individual damages are often less than the cost of pursuing recovery in the legal system, product liability cases are often done as class actions wherein an action is brought by a representative plaintiff seeking to represent a larger class of individuals who have similar claims against a defendant.”

We’ll discuss these laws below.

1. Federal laws on product safety

These are federal statutes that determine what product liability law or industrial standard applies to a certain business:

• Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA): applicable to most consumer products, including their components, parts, accessories, and packaging
• Food and Drugs Act (FDA): applies to food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical equipment and devices

There are also federal laws that apply specifically to certain products and the businesses that engage in them, such as:

• Pest Control Products Act (PCPA)
• Motor Vehicle Safety Act (MVSA)
• Hazardous Products Act (HPA)
• Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA)

These federal statutes establish safety standards that can support product liability claims.

Learn more about federal product liability laws with this video from Health Canada:

Looking for legal advice regarding product liability laws? Contact one of these Lexpert-ranked best product liability law firms for litigation in Canada.

Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA)

The CCPSA aims to ensure consumer products are safe by:

• enforcing certain rules covering consumer products
• enacting specific guidelines to be followed by businesses for their compliance
• providing remedies for consumers who are injured by defective products

Specific provisions of the CCPSA prohibit the manufacturing, importing, advertising, and selling of consumer products, especially those that are:

• listed under Schedule 2 of the CCPSA
• not in compliance with the standards according to its appropriate Regulations
• considered a danger to human health or safety
• a subject of a:
  • recall order by Health Canada
  • voluntary recall by its manufacturer, importer, advertiser, or seller
  • corrective measure that is yet to be implemented
• packaged or labelled in a misleading or deceptive way

In addition, the CCPSA imposes obligations to businesses regarding their products, including:

• preparing and safekeeping records and documents for the purpose of product tracing, reporting, and recalls
• determining and reporting any incident as defined in the CCPSA
• cooperating and assisting any inspector from Health Canada, when an inspection of the business’s compliance with CCPSA is being conducted
• to voluntarily recall, take any preventive measure, or comply with a recall order issued by Health Canada when a product is found to be defective or hazardous

Any business that violates the CCPSA may face:

• administrative monetary penalty and fines, in relation to a notice of violation
• criminal charge, which includes fines

Criminal Code

Any violation of the federal product liability laws can result in criminal offenses and civil liabilities. This is in addition to a possible offense under the criminal negligence provisions of the Criminal Code. It may even result in a class action suit in some cases.

Under the Code, a person or an entity may be liable for criminal negligence if their acts or omissions show disregard for other people’s safety. When it comes to product liability, companies may be charged with criminal negligence if they’re engaged in the business of manufacturing, importing, advertising, and selling of products.

The basis of this criminal liability is that these businesses owe a certain degree of care to their customers, and this care was disregarded by these businesses.

2. Provincial and territorial product liability laws

Certain provinces have also enacted their own laws to govern product liability of businesses within their jurisdictions. Some examples of these provincial laws are the Sale of Goods Act or the Consumer Protection Act. Québec’s Civil Code also applies in product liability claims in the province, specifically its provisions on negligence and warranties.

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3. Common law on product liability

There are three instances where a product liability claim may arise under Canada’s common law:

• breach of contractual warranty: when the defendant has breached any of the implied and express warranties in a contract of sale
• breach of statutory warranty: when the defendant has breached any of the warranties under a federal or provincial product liability law
• tort-based liability: where the defendant has been negligent either in the product’s design, manufacturing, advertising, labelling, or failed to warn its consumers of the product’s hazards

Strict liability in Canada

There is no strict liability under Canadian product liability laws. This is why in a litigation for product liability claims, the plaintiff must prove that:

• the product is defective, either in its design, manufacturing, or marketing
• the defendant was negligent in its duty of care it owes to the plaintiff
• the defendant’s negligence caused the defect or injury

Proving product liability

Common law states that to prove the liability of a manufacturer, seller, or anyone in the production and distribution chain, the plaintiff must show that:

• they were injured or that their property was damaged by the defective product
• the product was defective, either in its design, manufacturing, or marketing
• the defect was the cause of the injury to a person or damage to property
• the defective product was used under normal circumstances or as directed

In cases where the guarantee of quality of a product’s use is applicable, the plaintiff must prove that the defect:

• made the product unfit for its intended use, and the buyer would not have bought it because of the defect
• was hidden, existed at the time of the sale, and the plaintiff was not aware of it at the time of the sale

What businesses can be held liable for defective products?

Any of the entities or businesses involved in the chain of production and distribution may be held liable for product liability in Canada. Knowing these businesses are important in two ways:

• plaintiffs in a product liability claim can know who to sue, after consulting a lawyer that sue companies for product liability
• companies can prevent any liability on their part by following the product liability laws applicable to their line of business

The following entities can be held liable for defective products:

• product owners
• manufacturers
• testers
• inspectors
• certifiers
• importers
• wholesalers or distributors
• sellers or retailers
• repairers or installers

A particular business may do a combination of these roles. For example, one company may be both the product owner and the manufacturer, while another may also be an importer and the seller at the same time.

Example of applying product liability laws

Here are some instances where product liability laws may apply:

• when some parts of a vehicle are defective, resulting in a road accident
• when a medicine or drug was later found to be harmful
• when a medical device was faulty because of its design

What are the kinds of product liability claims?

There are three major kinds of product liability claims. These can be used by plaintiffs in suing for negligence and damages:

• defects in the product design
• manufacturing defects
• marketing defects

These claims are also the basis for what may be considered a defective product. Below are some brief discussions of each.

1. Defects in the product design

A product liability claim can arise from a design defect. Here, plaintiffs must prove with expert evidence that the product design is flawed.

Plaintiffs must show the design was unreasonably dangerous even if the product was:

• carefully manufactured
• used as directed
• was safely handled

2. Manufacturing defects

Product liability may also be based on manufacturing or assembly defects, which may occur due to:

• negligence of the manufacturer or its workers
• product design was not followed by the manufacturer, even if the design is defect-free
• faulty or substandard materials that were used in the production

Plaintiffs who rely on manufacturing defects in their product liability claim must prove that it is the manufacturer’s fault that made the product unsafe to use.

3. Marketing defects

A case can fall under the category of marketing defects when a product:

• is labelled improperly
• contains insufficient instructions
• has no or inadequate safety warnings

Here, plaintiffs must either:

• point out the fault or negligence of the manufacturer
• show that the advertiser improperly labelled or marketed its products
• prove that the product did not comply with industry standards or regulations

How can lawyers help clients with product liability laws?

“Lawyers can help clients in identifying if there is liability on behalf of the defendant, if it would make sense to pursue compensation, and if so, the best manner in which to pursue it,” says Baer, whose practice is focused on product liability claims.

Since “[a] product liability case can be filed as an individual action or as a class action,” as Baer adds, lawyers can also help identify which path to take should a product liability claim be pursued.

“An individual case would follow the normal course of litigation. If filed as a class action, the first step is to have the action certified to proceed as a class action. To do so, there is a 5-part test that needs to be met. If the action is certified, notice of certification would then be disseminated to the class and the action would then move to the discovery phase.”

Product liability laws: Protecting Canadians from defective products

Buying products has never been easier nowadays; from physical to online shops and other methods of making transactions fast and convenient. But when these products turn out to be defective, there are remedies under Canada’s product liability laws. For this, businesses and consumers can rely on the services of a product liability litigation lawyer, who can help either in litigating or defending product liability claims.

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