Already found guilty in May by the Paris Court of Appeal, TUV, the German certifier of defective PIP breast prostheses was sentenced Thursday in France to compensate 1,600 new plaintiffs of 23 nationalities, for a total of at least eight million euros.
These plaintiffs claimed 6,000 euros in provision for the damage suffered before the commercial court. They got 5,000 euros. It is therefore much more than the 3,000 euros of provisions allocated to the first victims.
TÜV is “fully responsible without limitation or restriction and shall promptly compensate all victims without exception”, reacted Me Olivier Aumaître, Pipa’s lawyer.
The certifier should appeal. In a press release, he disputes “firmly this judgment in that it retained a responsibility of the notified body”.
More than 10 years after the discovery of fraud within the Var manufacturer of breast prostheses founded by Jean-Claude Mas, whose death in 2019 put an end to the proceedings concerning PIP, legal proceedings continue against the German certifier, who had never noticed any shortcomings.
The PIP breast prosthesis scandal erupted following an inspection by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products in March 2010.
She had noted an abnormal rate of rupture of the implants which were filled, for the sake of economy, with a non-compliant artisanal gel instead of the required silicone gel.
This new decision adds to the cascade of legal decisions in this case, close to knowing an epilogue.
Already in February 2021, the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal had condemned the TUV certifier to pay 3,500 euros to more than 13,000 victims for “prejudice of anxiety”.
The Court of Appeal had nevertheless estimated that some 6,000 of them were ultimately inadmissible.
At the end of May, the Paris Court of Appeal had also confirmed TÜV’s liability in another aspect, however restricting this liability to the period from September 1, 2006 to April 6, 2010, thus invalidating the claims of several hundred women on the 2,500 concerned, Colombian, Venezuelan or English in particular.
The German company appealed to the Court of Cassation on the Aix and Paris decisions.
“Today there are several cases before the Court of Cassation and we hope that it will bring us insights to guide the judges” on this file, reacted Me Christelle Coslin, lawyer for TÜV, questioned by AFP.
The number of women worldwide with PIP implants is estimated at 400,000.
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