Lecture by Prof. Norbert Reich: 'The legal follow-up of the PIP scandal - where to go and what to plead?'

The legal follow-up of the PIP scandal - where to go and what to plead? Is there a ‘European legal’ space" for victim's compensation?

The PIP (Poly Implant Prothèse) litigation now before several French and German (ev. Dutch and the CJEU?) courts concerns compensation to women from France and other EU countries having suffered personal and bodily damage due to having been treated with defective breast implants, manufactured and marketed worldwide by the now bankrupt PIP company. Can the French mandatory insurer AFG be held liable, and under what conditions? What is the role of EU law, in particular Art. 18 TFEU and Dir. 85/374? What about liability of the German TUV Rheinland which certified the conformity of the implants according to the Medical Device Dir. 93/42 without ever making any inspections in situ? Can the victims eventually take recourse to the French state for having failed with its supervisory duties?

Prof. Dr Dr h.c. mult. Norbert Reich is Visiting Professor at the Groningen Centre for Law and Governance (GCL), University of Groningen; Emeritus Professor, University of Bremen.