ICPE and civil liability

You operate an ICPE. You're wondering about the risk to third parties (e.g. local residents, an environmental protection association) who may wish to assert a claim related to the operation of your facility.

• Under what conditions can your civil liability be called into question?

• What penalties can be imposed?

Irrespective of your obligations to the administrative authority in charge of ICPE regulations, you must operate your facility in a way that respects the rights of third parties. This means that if your activity generates a disturbance of any kind, you must repair the consequences. You can be forced to do so by a court decision. This is what civil liability is all about.

It is important to identify :

• the players involved in enforcing civil liability ;

• the stages in the procedure leading to the operator's civil liability;

• cases in which the operator's civil liability may be called into question;

• penalties incurred by the operator under civil liability law.