Product liability is the body of law that lets a person hurt by a defective product recover from the company responsible. In Georgia the core is O.C.G.A. § 51-1-11(b)(1): a manufacturer of personal property “sold as new property” is liable to any natural person who “may use, consume, or reasonably be affected by the property” and is injured because it “was not merchantable and reasonably suited to the use intended” when sold, if that condition is the proximate cause of the injury.
No contract with the manufacturer is needed, and a bystander can sue. No proof of carelessness is needed either, which is what “strict” means here. The manufacturer can’t contract out of this rule, § 51-1-11(b)(3).
Georgia recognizes three ways a product can be defective:
- Manufacturing. This unit came out different from the design.
- Design. The whole line carries the risk. Georgia uses a risk-utility test from Banks v. ICI Americas (1994).
- Warning. The information didn’t adequately communicate the danger.
Three limits shape these cases. The ten-year period in § 51-1-11(b)(2) runs from first sale. Industry-wide theories are barred by (d). And the strict liability subsection speaks to manufacturers, so a plain retailer is reached, if at all, through negligence or warranty.
If the product was altered, or used in an unintended way, the defense argues that its condition when sold was not the cause. Keeping the product unchanged matters for that reason. Punitive damages in a product case aren’t capped by amount, but 75 percent goes to the state under § 51-12-5.1(e)(2).
General information about Georgia law as of November 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.