Product Liability

The Consumer Protection Act will have a major influence on product liability matters. The main aim of this Act is to protect the consumer and introduces the legal principle of strict liability, which will entail that the producer, distributor, retailer and importer will in future only be able to rely on certain defences as stipulated in the Act. It will not be necessary in future for the plaintiff to prove that, among other things, the manufacturer was negligent when it manufactured the product. Furthermore, the Act does not only deal with goods, but also with services rendered.

Product liability claims are an inevitable thorn in the flesh of manufacturing industries. We have dealt with product liability claims on behalf of our major manufacturing clients over a long period of time and we have substantial experience in this field dealing with claims of individual consumers, which can generally be successfully negotiated or appropriately discouraged to substantial claims which include the risk of adverse publicity.