Title 15, Commerce and TradeRelease 119-110
§6608 Duty to Mitigate
Title 15 › CHAPTER 92 — YEAR 2000 COMPUTER DATE CHANGE › § 6608
Summary
Courts must not award money for harm a person suing could have avoided after they knew, or ought to have known, about the Y2K problem or how to fix or avoid it. That includes warnings or instructions the seller or service provider gave to buyers or users about ways to fix or avoid the Y2K failure. This duty adds to any similar duty under state law. It does not apply if the person being sued knowingly lied in an important way about the Y2K risk and the person suing reasonably relied on that lie.
Full Legal Text
Title 15, §6608
Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)In general
Damages awarded in any Y2K action shall exclude compensation for damages the plaintiff could reasonably have avoided in light of any disclosure or other information of which the plaintiff was, or reasonably should have been, aware, including information made available by the defendant to purchasers or users of the defendant’s product or services concerning means of remedying or avoiding the Y2K failure involved in the action.
(b)Preservation of existing law
The duty imposed by this section is in addition to any duty to mitigate imposed by State law.
(c)Exception for intentional fraud
Subsection (a) does not apply to damages suffered by reason of the plaintiff’s justifiable reliance upon an affirmative material misrepresentation by the defendant, made by the defendant with actual knowledge of its falsity, concerning the potential for Y2K failure of the device or system used or sold by the defendant that experienced the Y2K failure alleged to have caused the plaintiff’s harm.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
15 U.S.C. § 6608
Title 15, Commerce and Trade
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110