XN000022-1997-02-24 — Page 5

4.

The interim recommendations in the consultation paper are mainly:-

The law governing compensation for injury and damage caused by defective or unsafe goods should be expanded beyond the existing spheres of contract law and negligence law.

The proposed new form of liability should be based on the defect approach, which means that a product is regarded as defective if it does not meet the standard of safety that persons generally are entitled to expect.

The standard of safety required should be judged by reference to the standard of the general public instead of the claimant.

The standard of safety required should be judged at the time the product was put into circulation.

Manufacturers, producers, own-branders and importers should be jointly and severally liable to claimants. As for wholesalers, distributors and retailers, they would be liable only if they fail to identify within reasonable time the person who supplied the product to them.

The proposed new form of liability should cover all kinds of movable products subject to products expressly included or excluded. Unprocessed natural products and game, and component parts should also be covered,

Any injured person, whether or not he is party to a contract, and whether or not he is a user of the product or a mere bystander, should be covered by the proposed new form of liability.

Specific defences should be made available to protect legitimate business interests. Such defences include compliance with statutory standards, the product was not supplied by the defendant, the product was supplied otherwise than in the course of business, the defect did not exist at the time of supply. The defendant would have a partial defence if the damage is caused partly by the fault of the claimant.

The defendant should also have a defence if the state of scientific and technical knowledge at the time of supply did not enable to the defect to be discovered.

Compensation under the proposed new form of liability should not be subject to any maximum or minimum limits, but provisions should ensure that a claimant cannot recover twice for the same injury or damage.