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A FRENCH COURT has ordered German safety certifier TUV to pay €60 million ($64 million) in compensation to 20,000 women who received defective breast implants that the group had approved.
The German company was ordered to make a provisional payment of €3,000 to each plaintiff for certifying that implants made by French firm Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) met safety standards.
In what became a major health scandal, the devices were later found to contain substandard, industrial-grade silicone gel.
“The final amount will be determined after an assessment, but (TUV) is required to make a provisional payment of €3,000″ per person, said lawyer Laurent Gaudon, representing 7,000 women.
TUV said it would appeal the latest ruling, issued by a commercial court in the southern port of Toulon.
Liable
TUV was found liable in 2013 in a first case brought by 1,700 PIP implant recipients and a group of distributors.
But an appeals court later overturned that decision, saying that TUV had fulfilled its obligations as a certifying body and could not be held responsible for failing to detect PIP’s cover-up.
The company maintains it was never its job to check the actual implants, and their task was only to inspect the manufacturing process.
The scandal first erupted in 2010 after doctors noticed abnormally high rupture rates in the implants.
The affair made global headlines in 2011, with some 300,000 women in 65 countries believed to have received the faulty implants.
PIP’s founder, Jean-Claude Mas, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in jail in 2013, confirmed on appeal in 2016.
He always denied the implants posed any health risks.
Thousands of women have had the implants removed, despite health officials in several countries saying they are not toxic and are not thought to increase the risk of breast cancer.
Irish cases
A number of Irish women have taken cases in Ireland against PIP.
Three Irish clinics implant women with the PIP implants: Harley Medical Group, which dealt with 1,100 women; Clane Hospital Cosmetic Surgery which dealt with 250 women; and Shandon St Hospital which dealt with 100 women.
In 2012, the Department of Health said it would cover removal costs for the women that attended the Harley Medical Group. The other two clinics provided “satisfactory packages” after being told to cover the cost of surgery for the affected women.
When the Irish Medical Board heard about the issues with the implants, it contacted all the clinics that used the product and asked them cease using it.
In 2013, MEPs agreed on legislation for stricter monitoring and certification procedures for medical devices such as breast or hip implants, in the wake of the PIP scandal.
The proposed legislation seeks to improve transparency of information for patients and medical staff and to strengthen traceability rules, without creating additional burdens for innovative small manufacturers.
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Do these surveys not take into account the big bills? Such as gas, oil, petrol or electricity.
They are the bills that keep me in the red and they are not going down!
And mortgage bill too! Doh..
The CPI is down 0.4% for prices in November however we are still 0.8% above what prices were at this point last year. Here’s the full report.
Cheers Sean.
The cost of housing, heating, electricity and other fuels have risen.
I don’t really care if a bag of apples went down by 5cent when my gas bill is higher than I ever remember.
its not going down people are spending less because thy don’t have it. end of.
Cost of living going down WHERE
Wages going south aswell with increased prsi…
Wait until the property tax hits in!!!!…I cant believe people are moaning about a €10 a month for some kids allownace….ITS THE PROPERTY TAX WHICH IS GOING TO DO THE MOST DAMAGE TO FAMILIES….WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! AND START TO PROTEST THIS UNJUST TAX!!…you are going to get hit with more tax in water charges as well… & pretty soon they will own YOU and your FAMILY and your HOUSE if you dont do anything about it….WAKE UP!!
Nope children’s allowance is bigger for me. 3 kids means €38 per month or 450 odd a year. That’s on top of the 480 I lost last year.
Actually the prsi change is costing nearly as much as the property tax (avg figure).
The price of tobacco fell by 20% on Moore street last year
black market fags
55 euro for 200
Irish 98euro for 200
Has the Author of this article been asleep for the past six years??
Thomas these people are not asleep its called deception they keep telling you that it is raining while they p—- all over yuo
No, the author of this article has not been asleep for the last six years. (Though, on average, I’d say if you added it up I’ve been asleep for a little under two years out of the last six.)
Rubbish
I must be living in another country ! Every time I go to the shops for food there are price increases abet for only a few cents at a time . But added up on a lot of products this all adds up ! There are of course ‘special offers’ but in my experience the cut of these prices is added to different products around the store !
I don’t know what the idiots who did this survey are living on – fresh air? I wasn’t asked…no way has the cost gone down!?!?
Leave it out!!!!!!
Highest purchasing power… That means given our net tax income and cost of living we are materially better off than all of Europe excluding Luxembourg and the Netherlands… Interesting and no wonder they’re annoyed with this constant whining how we are squeezed to the limit….we must seem like a nation of hypocrites.
the cost of living has gone down and diminished to an all time low in this generations time
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