4. Product liability

4.1 Regulations

For a long time, the French system and its particularly sophisticated common law of civil liability (article 1382 of the French Civil Code et seq., article 1641 of the French Civil Code et seq. and all the case law that has developed from it) did not justify the legislator adopting a specific law taking into consideration the victims of damage caused by defective products.

It was in fact under pressure from developments in European law that Parliament passed law no. 98-389 of May 19, 1998 (Journal officiel of May 21, 1998). Over a period of almost fifteen years, numerous proposals and drafts were drawn up, before finally arriving at the original system set out in the law of May 19, 1998, incorporated into the Civil Code under n ^...