behalf of a minor or incompetent, the term includes
the claimant’s legal guardian.
(3) COMMERCIAL LOSS.—The term ‘‘commercial
loss’’ means—
(A) any loss or damage solely to a product
itself;
(B) loss relating to a dispute over the
value of a product; or
(C) consequential economic loss, the recov-
ery of which is governed by applicable State
commercial or contract laws that are similar to
the Uniform Commercial Code.
(4) 
COMPENSATORY
DAMAGES.—The 
term
‘‘compensatory damages’’ means damages awarded
for economic and noneconomic losses.
(5) 
DRAM-SHOP.—The 
term 
‘‘dram-shop’’
means a drinking establishment where alcoholic bev-
erages are sold to be consumed on the premises.
(6) ECONOMIC
LOSS.—The term ‘‘economic
loss’’ means any pecuniary loss resulting from harm
(including the loss of earnings or other benefits re-
lated to employment, medical expense loss, replace-
ment services loss, loss due to death, burial costs,
and loss of business or employment opportunities) to
the extent recovery for that loss is allowed under ap-
plicable State law.
(7) HARM.—The term ‘‘harm’’ includes phys-
ical, nonphysical, economic, and noneconomic loss.
(8) MANUFACTURER.—The term ‘‘manufac-
turer’’ means—
(A) any person who—
(i) is engaged in a business to
produce, create, make, or construct any
product (or component part of a product);
and
(ii)(I) designs or formulates the prod-
uct (or component part of the product); or
(II) has engaged another person to
design or formulate the product (or compo-
nent part of the product);
(B) a product seller, but only with respect
to those aspects of a product (or component
part of a product) that are created or affected
when, before placing the product in the stream
of commerce, the product seller—
(i) produces, creates, makes, con-
structs and designs, or formulates an as-
pect of the product (or component part of
the product) made by another person; or
(ii) has engaged another person to de-
sign or formulate an aspect of the product
(or component part of the product) made
by another person; or
(C) any product seller not described in
subparagraph (B) that holds itself out as a
manufacturer to the user of the product.
(9) NONECONOMIC
LOSS.—The term ‘‘non-
economic loss’’ means loss for physical or emotional
pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment,
mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of
life, loss of society and companionship, loss of con-
sortium (other than loss of domestic service), injury
to reputation, or any other nonpecuniary loss of any
kind or nature.
(10) PERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ means any
individual, corporation, company, association, firm,
partnership, society, joint stock company, or any
other entity (including any governmental entity).
(11) PRODUCT.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘‘product’’
means any object, substance, mixture, or raw
material in a gaseous, liquid, or solid state
that—
(i) is capable of delivery itself or as an
assembled whole, in a mixed or combined
state, or as a component part or ingre-
dient;
(ii) is produced for introduction into
trade or commerce;
(iii) has intrinsic economic value; and
(iv) is intended for sale or lease to
persons for commercial or personal use.
(B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘product’’
does not include—
(i) tissue, organs, blood, and blood
products used for therapeutic or medical
purposes, except to the extent that such
tissue, organs, blood, and blood products
(or the provision thereof) are subject,
under applicable State law, to a standard
of liability other than negligence; or
(ii) electricity, water delivered by a
utility, natural gas, or steam.
(12) PRODUCT LIABILITY ACTION.—The term
‘‘product liability action’’ means a civil action
brought on any theory for any physical injury, ill-
ness, disease, death, or damage to property that is
caused by a product.
(13) PRODUCT SELLER.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘product sell-
er’’ means a person who in the course of a busi-
ness conducted for that purpose—
(i) sells, distributes, rents, leases, pre-
pares, blends, packages, labels, or other-
wise is involved in placing a product in the
stream of commerce; or
(ii) installs, repairs, refurbishes, re-
conditions, or maintains the harm-causing
aspect of the product.
(B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘product sell-
er’’ does not include—
(i) a seller or lessor of real property;
(ii) a provider of professional services
in any case in which the sale or use of a
product is incidental to the transaction and
the essence of the transaction is the fur-
nishing of judgment, skill, or services; or
(iii) any person who—
(I) acts in only a financial capac-
ity with respect to the sale of a prod-
uct; or
(II) leases a product under a
lease arrangement in which the lessor
does not initially select the leased
product and does not during the lease
term ordinarily control the daily oper-
ations and maintenance of the prod-
uct.
(14) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of
the several States, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,
Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Is-
lands, any other territory or possession of the
United States, or any political subdivision of any
such State, territory, or possession.
SEC. 203. APPLICABILITY; PREEMPTION.
(a) APPLICABILITY.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), this title governs any product liability ac-
tion brought in any Federal or State court.
(2) ACTIONS EXCLUDED.—
(A) ACTIONS FOR COMMERCIAL LOSS.—A
civil action brought for commercial loss shall be
governed only by applicable State commercial or
contract laws that are similar to the Uniform
Commercial Code.
(B) ACTIONS FOR NEGLIGENT ENTRUST-
MENT; NEGLIGENCE PER SE CONCERNING FIRE-
ARMS AND AMMUNITION; DRAM-SHOP.—
(i) NEGLIGENT
ENTRUSTMENT.—A
civil action for negligent entrustment shall
not be subject to the provisions of this title
governing product liability actions, but
shall be subject to any applicable Federal
or State law.
(ii) 
NEGLIGENCE
PER
SE
CON-
CERNING FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION.—A
civil action brought under a theory of neg-
ligence per se concerning the use of a fire-
arm or ammunition shall not be subject to
the provisions of this title governing prod-
uct liability actions, but shall be subject to
any applicable Federal or State law.
(iii) 
DRAM-SHOP.—A 
civil 
action
brought under a theory of dram-shop or
third-party liability arising out of the sale
or providing of an alcoholic product to an
intoxicated person or minor shall not be
subject to the provisions of this title, but
shall be subject to any applicable Federal
or State law.
(b) RELATIONSHIP TO STATE LAW.—This title su-
persedes a State law only to the extent that the State law
applies to an issue covered by this title. Any issue that
is not governed by this title, including any standard of
liability applicable to a manufacturer, shall be governed
by any applicable Federal or State law.
(c) EFFECT ON OTHER LAW.—Nothing in this title
shall be construed to—
(1) waive or affect any defense of sovereign im-
munity asserted by any State under any State law;
(2) supersede or alter any Federal law;
(3) waive or affect any defense of sovereign im-
munity asserted by the United States;
(4) affect the applicability of any provision of
chapter 97 of title 28, United States Code;
(5) preempt State choice-of-law rules with re-
spect to claims brought by a foreign nation or a cit-
izen of a foreign nation;
(6) affect the right of any court to transfer
venue or to apply the law of a foreign nation or to
dismiss a claim of a foreign nation or of a citizen
of a foreign nation on the ground of inconvenient
forum; or
(7) supersede or modify any statutory or com-
mon law, including any law providing for an action
to abate a nuisance, that authorizes a person to in-
stitute an action for civil damages or civil penalties,
cleanup costs, injunctions, restitution, cost recovery,
punitive damages, or any other form of relief, for re-
mediation of the environment (as defined in section
101(8) of the Comprehensive Environmental Re-
sponse, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42
U.S.C. 9601(8))).
SEC. 204. LIABILITY RULES APPLICABLE TO PRODUCT
SELLERS, RENTERS, AND LESSORS.
(a) GENERAL RULE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—In any product liability ac-
tion covered under this Act, a product seller other
than a manufacturer shall be liable to a claimant
only if the claimant establishes that—
(A)(i) the product that allegedly caused the
harm that is the subject of the complaint was
sold, rented, or leased by the product seller;
(ii) the product seller failed to exercise rea-
sonable care with respect to the product; and
(iii) the failure to exercise reasonable care
was a proximate cause of the harm to the
claimant;
(B)(i) the product seller made an express
warranty applicable to the product that alleg-
edly caused the harm that is the subject of the
complaint, independent of any express warranty
made by a manufacturer as to the same prod-
uct;
(ii) the product failed to conform to the
warranty; and
(iii) the failure of the product to conform
to the warranty caused the harm to the claim-
ant; or
(C)(i) the product seller engaged in inten-
tional wrongdoing, as determined under applica-
ble State law; and
(ii) the intentional wrongdoing caused the
harm that is the subject of the complaint.
(2) REASONABLE
OPPORTUNITY
FOR
INSPEC-
TION.—For purposes of paragraph (1)(A)(ii), a
product seller shall not be considered to have failed
to exercise reasonable care with respect to a product
based upon an alleged failure to inspect the product,
if—
(A) the failure occurred because there was
no reasonable opportunity to inspect the prod-
uct; or
(B) the inspection, in the exercise of rea-
sonable care, would not have revealed the as-
pect of the product that allegedly caused the
claimant’s harm.
(b) SPECIAL RULE.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—A product seller shall be
deemed to be liable as a manufacturer of a product
for harm caused by the product, if—
(A) the manufacturer is not subject to
service of process under the laws of any State
in which the action may be brought; or
(B) the court determines that the claimant
is or would be unable to enforce a judgment
against the manufacturer.
(2) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—For purposes
of this subsection only, the statute of limitations ap-
plicable to claims asserting liability of a product sell-
er as a manufacturer shall be tolled from the date
of the filing of a complaint against the manufacturer
to the date that judgment is entered against the
manufacturer.
(c) RENTED OR LEASED PRODUCTS.—
(1) DEFINITION.—For purposes of paragraph
(2), and for determining the applicability of this title
to any person subject to that paragraph, the term
‘‘product liability action’’ means a civil action
brought on any theory for harm caused by a product
or product use.
(2) LIABILITY.—Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, any person engaged in the business
of renting or leasing a product (other than a person
excluded from the definition of product seller under
section 202(13)(B)) shall be subject to liability in a
product liability action under subsection (a), but any
person engaged in the business of renting or leasing
a product shall not be liable to a claimant for the
tortious act of another solely by reason of ownership
of that product.
SEC. 205. FEDERAL CAUSE OF ACTION PRECLUDED.
The district courts of the United States shall not
have jurisdiction under this title based on section 1331
or 1337 of title 28, United States Code.
SEC. 206. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This title shall apply with respect to any action com-
menced on or after the date of enactment of this Act with-
out regard to whether the harm that is the subject of the
action or the conduct that caused the harm occurred be-
fore that date of enactment.
Æ