We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2017
SOURCES OF LAW AND THEIR EVOLUTION
DANISH LAW BEFORE THE PRODUCT LIABILITY DIRECTIVE
The original Danish rules on product liability constituted a rather simple system. The liability of producers and suppliers for physical damage caused by dangerous/defective products was based on fault/negligence (culpa) following the ordinary principles of Danish judge-made tort law. A special feature was a court-developed principle of professional suppliers’ vicarious liability for product liability incurred by a previous link in the chain of production or distribution. The main justification for this principle is generally sought in the fact that the supplier is usually in a better position than the injured party to influence and to seek recourse against the producer and other previous links in the chain of distribution.
The principles mentioned above are based on (non-statutory) tort law and have no counterpart in sales law. Personal injury and damage caused to property (other than the defective product itself) are outside the scope of the seller's liability for breach of contract. This is not stipulated explicitly in any of the provisions of the Sale of Goods Act (from 1906) but has been and still is the way the Act is interpreted based on the travaux préparatoires of the Act. An exception to this, concerning damage to the buyer's property, is found in international non-consumer sales, see CISG arts 5 ff.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRODUCT LIABILITY DIRECTIVE
In order to maintain the pre-existing rules as far as possible and going no further than required by the Directive, the Danish rules implementing the Directive were added ‘on top’ of the existing non-statutory rules. Thus, the 1989 Danish Product Liability Act (PLA) introduced the Directive's strict (no-fault) defect liability for the ‘producer’ (with a development risk defence) and codified the pre-existing principle of professional suppliers’ vicarious liability for product liability incurred by a previous link in the chain of production and distribution.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
