More than a hundred British women won compensation from a German safety standards firm for approving defective PIP breast implants, paving the way for many more to file claims for the “damage” to their bodies and lives.
The court in the southern city of Toulon ruled that TUV Rheinland had “neglected its duties of checking and vigilance” by certifying that implants made by French firm Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, conformed to safety rules.
The implants were subsequently found to contain industrial-grade silicone gel unfit for human use, sparking an international scandal believed to have affected more than 300,000 women in 65 countries.
Doubts first emerged in 2010 after doctors noticed abnormally high rupture rates in PIP implants.
The hundred-odd British plaintiffs were among almost 1,700 women who were fitted with the implants - most of them from South America. They had asked the German firm for 16,000 euros (£13,400) each.
