November 18, 2020
After more than ten years of proceedings and a series of contradictory judgments in the case of the defective breast prostheses of the company PIP, a judgment will be rendered in May. It could pave the way for compensation for tens of thousands of women around the world.
The Paris Court of Appeal, called to rule on the responsibility of the German certifying body TÜV in the scandal of the defective breast prostheses of the company PIP, will deliver its judgment on May 20, 2021. After more than ten years of proceedings and a series of contradictory judgments, this judgment could pave the way for the compensation of tens of thousands of women, victims of PIP prostheses around the world.
After the lawyers of the German certification giant on Tuesday, it was those of the victims who spoke on Wednesday. For them, TÜV Germany and its French subsidiary must “be condemned jointly and severally to compensate all the victims”. There are an estimated 400,000 women worldwide with PIP implants.
“PIP only used the authorized Nusil brand gel for a very small part of its production: less than 15%!”. “The TÜV auditors did not check the raw materials” used by PIP, complained the lawyer. “TÜV could have made the observation that PIP ordered very little or not at all from Nusil”, he indicated, denouncing “the carelessness” of the certifier. “The proven PIP scam does not clear everyone,” for her part, said Me Jacqueline Laffont, another lawyer for the victims of PIP implants.
The TÜV-certified CE mark on PIP prostheses has enabled this company to “flood the world and women with non-compliant prostheses”.
In compulsory liquidation since 2010, PIP has sold nearly a million defective prostheses around the world between 2001 and 2010. Filled with non-compliant gel, PIP implants also had an abnormal rate of rupture.
“If TÜV had played its part, if it had not, with its eyes closed, granted and extended for years and years a CE marking which was inappropriate and unjustified (…) then we would not be there and thousands of women around the world would not go through what they are going through, ”the lawyer concluded.
Questioned by AFP at the end of the hearing, Me Christelle Coslin, one of TÜV’s lawyers, denounced the “untruths” of the opposing party. “We are serene”, she assured.
At first instance, in 2013, TÜV was found guilty of having “failed in its duties of control and vigilance”. This decision was overturned on appeal before the Court of Cassation ordered a new trial.