Europeanisation

The problem of product liability is not national. The scandals like Thalidomide and Colza crossed boundaries. The national laws were different. The Council of Europe discussed a Europe wide treaty on liability for products between 1971 and 1977. This paved the way for the European Union to produce a Directive in 1985 its basic strategy was to require that states impose liability on ‘producers’ (defined quite elaborately to include importers into the EC and suppliers in certain circumstances) for death, personal injuries and damage to ‘consumer property’ caused by the ‘defective’ products which they put into circulation. This Directive has been interpreted by the European Court of Justice since 2002 as creating complete harmonisation, and so replacing national tort or delict laws (but not contract law).

Whilst this improved the position of consumers in England, it made it worse in Germany and France, where the consumer did not have to prove that the product was defective when put into circulation by the manufacturer.

I hope I'm bought by someone nice. I hate mean owners.