On 14 November 2013, the Court of commerce of Toulon, France, ordered the Notified Body TUV Rheinland, i.a., to pay a provisional compensation of 3,000 Euro per person to approximately 1,700 patients (5 million Euro total) who were fitted with defective breast implants produced by the French company Poly Implant Prothèse S.A.S (PIP), pending assessments of further compensation by experts.
The immediate and provisional character of the compensation was upheld and confirmed by the Court of Appeal of Aix-En-Provence, France on 21 January 2014. An appeal on the merits of the Court of commerce decision is still pending.The Court of commerce's decision represents a rare victory for women fitted with the defective PIP implants since attempts in Germany to find TUV Rheinland liable have been unsuccessful, as most recently confirmed by the German Court of appeal OLG Zweibrücken in a decision of 30 January 2014, and the First Instance Court Landgericht Görlitz in a decision of 17 April 2014. It also signifies an important development for product liability actions as it imposes a duty of diligence and thoroughness on the Notified Bodies and, for products subject to the review and control of Notified Bodies, offers a potential additional debtor to victims confronted with the bankruptcy of the actual manufacturer of the defective products.Read more ;
