The justice rejected Tuesday the request of the German certifying body TUV Rheinland to suspend the payment of financial provisions. She will have to pay 3000 euros to each victim.
Me Philippe Courtois, one of the lawyers for the victims of fraudulent PIP breast implants, filed an appeal against the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine yesterday Tuesday. He called for the creation as soon as possible of a compensation fund for the women victims who still have not received the slightest euro in this affair. This request concerned the first criminal aspect of this case.
Along with the recent conviction of Jean-Claude Mas, to four years in prison for aggravated deception and fraud, another “civil” component is being played out in the courtrooms. The justice thus found “responsible”, in civil, the German certifier TUV on November 14th. The judges had considered that the leader of quality control had “failed in his obligations of control and vigilance. ”
And the German company will have to pay! The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal in fact rejected on Tuesday, pending a judgment on the merits of the case, TUV Rheinland’s request to suspend the payment of financial provisions of 5.5 million euros allocated to carriers of defective PIP breast implants.
3,000 provision per victim
“This decision is very satisfactory because it allows the victims to obtain an initial compensation, but the fight continues on the merits of the case”, told Reuters the lawyer of a hundred English women wearing PIP prostheses, Me Mathieu. Croizet. The company had to pay each of the more than 1,600 plaintiffs a provision of 3,000 euros, to which are added the legal costs estimated at 400 euros.
“France has taken care of the removal of prostheses, this is not the case for England. The victims will therefore use this sum for the removal of defective prostheses, ”he added. “Especially since lack of sufficient resources, many of these female victims cannot perform these preventive explantation operations,” confided yesterday to why actor, Me Philippe Courtois.
TUV will appeal
In reaction, the certifying body has already announced that it is appealing the decision. As a reminder, he had been summoned by six foreign distributors of PIP who claimed 28 million euros in compensation, but also by the wearers of prostheses who requested a provision for moral damage and anxiety.
For its part, TUV Rheinland has always considered that it has fulfilled its mission, which was to certify the design dossier and the company’s quality system, and not to certify the quality of the breast prostheses themselves.
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