For providers who are not established in the Union, the authorised representative plays a pivotal role in ensuring the compliance of the high-risk AI systems placed on the market or put into service in the Union by those providers and in serving as their contact person established in the Union. Given that pivotal role, and in order to ensure that responsibility is assumed for the purposes of enforcement of this Regulation, it is appropriate to make the authorised representative jointly and severally liable with the provider for defective high-risk AI systems. The liability of the authorised representative provided for in this Regulation is without prejudice to the provisions of Directive 85/374/EEC on liability for defective products.