Journal of Yaşar University

Yazarlar: h. Gökçe TÜRKOĞLU

Konular:-

DOI:10.19168/jyu.80797

Anahtar Kelimeler:-

Özet: Under the early English case law, the buyer’s had no real protection against the defects in the product they bought. But, due to the developments in the English tort law, it was accepted that if the defendant had fault, then there was tort liability in respect of harm caused by a negligently manufactured product. Before 1985, the product liability laws in European Union Member States were different from each other and the differences were causing important difficulties to trade within EU. In order to solve these problems, the Directive on Products Liability 85/374/EEC was adopted in 1985. Unfortunately, the details of the Directive on Product Liability have been criticized heavily for some time. By allowing Member States to derogate from the Directive on some issues, a consensus was achieved. The Directive on Product Liability was adapted to English Law by the Consumer Protection Act 1987. The 1987 Act brings strict liability regime which is not dependent on the fact of the defectiveness of the products purchased. But the Act does not replace common law rules. So in English law, both strict liability and tortious liability can be used for defective products. It was thought that strict liability could bring a better protection for the consumers as there was no need to prove the fault of the defendant but subsequent cases showed that at some points, common law provides greater consumer protection than 1987 Act. Actually, an action for damages in respect of harm caused by a defective product under the 1987 Act differs very little from a common law action for damages in respect of harm caused by a negligently manufactured product

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