The liability for the defective products is the situation in which a Producteur engages its criminal Responsabilité because of a defect for safety of the one of its products or services involving a damage with the Consommateur. It is about a special diet of Responsabilité because of the things.

The liability for the defective products was born on July 25th, 1985 in the form of a Community Directive. They is 13 years later that this directive is finally transposed in the French Droit thanks to the law of May 19th, 1998 which inserts the articles relating to the liability for the defective products into the Civil code. France will in addition be condemned by CJCE not to have to integrate this directive correctly. The law of 1998 which introduces this mode of responsibility has two fundamental characters:

1. a character of Law and order: that siginifie which one cannot derogate from his provisions by Convention.

2. an optional character: the victim can, if she wishes it, continue the person in charge of its damage on the base of this law, or on that of the common right of the liability for the things.

Fields of application of the law of May 19th, 1998

Fields of application as for the object

The article of the Civil code definite the extremely broad product of way in which only the buildings are excluded:

“Any personal property Is a product, even if it is built-in a building, including the products of the soil, the breeding, hunting and fishing. Electricity is regarded as a product. ”

The article of the Civil code definite of sound with dimensions reparable damage in a very broad way still:

“The provisions of this title apply to the compensation for the damage which results from an attack to the person.

They also apply to the compensation for the damage higher than an amount determined by decree, which results from an attack to a good other than the defective product itself. ”

" should not be confused; défectueux" and " vicié". Indeed, a vitiated product is that which does not answer the role that one could await from him (ex: a television set which does not post an image). This type of product is not concerned with the law of 1998. The defective products are those which present a defect of safety (ex: a television set which implose).

Fields of application as for the people

The people concerned with this law are precisely designated. With dimensions one of the victims on the one hand, it does not have there a restriction since the article of the Civil code expressly draws aside all distinctions between the contracting ones and the thirds. With dimensions one of the persons in charge of another share, it acts of the producers. The producer is necessarily a professional who worked the raw material, a component, or part of the product. Only this last is in theory responsible for the damage caused by a defect of its product. However, if it cannot be identified, then will be indifferently responsible the supplier, salesman, or hirer out (the widening of this pallet of persons in charge finds its interest in the current victimologist).

It is not necessary to distinguish if the person in charge is related or not to the victim by a contract. The law of 1998 applies as well in the fields contractual, as criminal.

Fields of application as for the deadlines

To return in the fields of the law, the product must be put in circulation after 1998. The setting in cirulation results in two characters:

• the producer was deprived of the product
• the product is put on sale or in any other form of distribution

In 2006, the CJCE gave a definition of the startup of a product. It is when “the product leaves the manufacturing process and returns in the process of marketing. ”

The law envisages two times to act and beyond which one will not be able to act any more:

1. the term of limitation: the article imposes a 3 years deadline “from the date on which the applicant had or should have been informed of the damage, the defect and the identity of the producer. ”
2. the Limit time: the victim cannot act any more against the producer beyond 10 years as from putting into circulation of the product. If the damage occurs within this 10 year, then the action of the victim is prescribed by 3 years, as from the day when it had, or should have been informed of the defect of safety. According to the article of the Civil code, this “product is put in circulation when the producer deprived himself some voluntarily. A product is the subject only of only one putting into circulation. ”

Conditions of the responsibility

Components of the responsibility

The law draws aside all requirements of proof of particular fault of the manufacturer to engage his responsibility. The person in charge will not be able to thus exonerate himself by proving that it did not make a fault. He will not be able to exonerate himself either by proving that the thing was produced in the code of practice, or in accordance with the requirements in force. It is thus not a system of responsibility based on the fault.

The victim will have to prove 3 things: a damage, a defect of the object and a causal link. Its damage could consequently be to repair on the principle of integral repair.

The defect is defined in the article of the Civil code. It is that which compromises safety and not that which undermines the utility of the good. This defect is appreciated in an objective way, compared to a normally diligent person. According to the Court of appeal, the manufacturer is held to deliver a product free from all defects likely to cause a danger for the people or the goods. It sticks so that the code of practice and the tehniques ones, as well as obtaining the administrative authorizations were obtained.

Facts likely to draw aside the responsibility

The article of the Civil code enumerates the facts exonératoires one by one.

• means of defense tending to prove the inexistence of the one of the conditions of the responsibility

It is about the proof by the producer whom the product was not put in circulation. It can also acts of the proof that the defect did not exist at the time when the product at summer put in circulation but that it east is created subsequently to this putting into circulation. The producer can as release himself from his responsibility by showing as the product was not intended for the sale or all other forms of distribution. Indeed, this system of responsibility is founded on a putting into voluntary circulation at professional ends.

• traditional causes of exemption

It is about the fault of the victim as well as Fait third. The fault of the victim can be exonératoire partially or completely. The fact of the third must present the characters of the major force to be exonératoire of all responsibilities.

Aucunes limiting or exclusive clauses of responsibility cannot limit the responsibility for the producer in theory. However, exceptionally, for the conventions passed between professionals, and only for the damage caused with the goods, these clauses are tolerated.

• conditional causes of exemption

They are allowed causes of exemption per principle, while holding for the victim the possibility of drawing aside them if it establishes that the producer did not take, after putting into circulation of the product, the necessary measures to cure the defect. There are two kinds:

1. the Makes of the prince: the producer who shows that the defect is not that the consequence of imperative standards will be able to exonerate its responsibility.
2. the risk of development: it is about the defect where the defect of a thing existed at the time of putting into circulation, but that the state of the scientific knowledge and techniques at this time there did not allow to detect. The appreciation of the scientific knowledge and techniques are done without taking account of qualities of professional capacities of the producer.

The exonératoire effect of these 2 measurements can be isolated if, in the presence of a defect revealed within 10 year, the producer did not take measurements suitable to prevent the detrimental consequences of them.

Legal measurements of consumer protection

The harmfulness of certain products for the Environment or the human Santé often only appears long-term, as one noted for the Amiante. Consequently, the mode of liability for the defective products is particularly protective of the purchaser and the Consommateur. It thus puts at the load of the salesman several obligations:

• a Obligation of information and safety defined in the article of the Code of consumption
• an obligation of conformity defined in the article of the Code of consumption
• guarantee of a product against all Latent defect

The L221-1 articles in L221-11 of the Code of consumption go in the direction of the consumer protection.

See too

• Responsibility sociétale for the companies

Random links:

Marc Georges | François Fresneau of Gataudière | Tarano | Equip with the United Arab Emirates of cricket | Edward Robinson