60 million euros in compensation. The TÜV body that certified the fraudulent PIP breast implants was ordered to compensate the victims.
Justice has ruled. The TÜV certifier will have to pay compensation to women implanted with fraudulent PIP breast prostheses. The Toulon Commercial Court (Var) on January 20 condemned the German certification body to compensate the 20,000 plaintiffs. In total, 60 million euros will have to be disbursed.
This verdict goes against a first judgment rendered by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal (Bouches-du-Rhône). This judgment cleared TÜV of all suspicion. The Toulon court has chosen to observe the facts for what they are: the PIP breast implants were filled with a gel that did not comply with health rules. Yet they have passed the tests of certification bodies – such as TÜV. The company is therefore also responsible for the damage suffered by the victims.
30,000 women implanted
As a reminder, the alert concerning PIP implants was issued in 2010 by the National Medicines Safety Agency, Afssaps, now ANSM. Products are withdrawn from the market due to an unusually high rate of breakage. In question, the gel which does not correspond to the sanitary requirements. The authorities then recommend the removal of implants that present a risk of rupture.
More than 30,000 women are affected by the placement of fraudulent implants. At the last assessment, 18,667 underwent explantation – either as a preventive measure or after the detection of an adverse event.
Several cases of tumors have been diagnosed in PIP implant carriers. But the ANSM recalls in a document, they are not related to the defects of the gel. The National Cancer Institute (INCa) has confirmed the increased risk of breast tumors in women who have a prosthesis, whether it is an adenocarcinoma or anaplastic large cell lymphoma associated with a breast implant.
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