L’affaire PIP ou la difficile réparation en Europe des dommages corporels de masse causés par un dispositif médical défectueux

The PIP case is a global public health issue : 400,000 women worldwide, including 30,000 in France, live with breast implants manufactured by the French company Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP). Many of those women have to deal with defective implants : producer set up a system conducting not to fulfill all of the implants with the regular medical gel but some of them with an industrial and alternative one, cheaper but causing early termination of the implants and liberation of this gel in the body. All of these victims try to get a compensation for their personnal injury all over the world and especially in France, place of manufacture of PIP implants. Many difficulties arise, however, in terms of both access to the courts than full compensation. The individual access mechanisms to the courts don?t fit with mass damages? compensation ; the PIP case demonstrates the need to create a European class action for mass damages caused by defective health products. Moreover, when the producer responsible for defective health products is insolvent, and that other actions for damages do not allow full compensation for all damages to all victims without discrimination, other socialization mechanisms of risks should take place at the European level. The time has come to establish a European law protective of the victim person as consideration for the free movement of goods in Europe.