No secure evidence needed, if all possible reasons for a fault come from manufacturer’s sphere, LG Freiburg, Germany - Product liability

The LG Freiburg
(district court) pronounced 24.02.2017, that if the only possible reason for
failures of a product come from the sphere of the manufacturer, the
manufacturer is liable for the fault of the product according to § 1 ProdHaftG
(German Product Liability Law), even if there is no secure evidence and if the
fault does not appear in any product of the product range.

In addition, LG
Freiburg states, that the manufacturer is not liable to consumer according to §
1 Sect. 2 No. 5 ProdHaftG, if the fault could not be recognized on the basis of
the current state-of-the-art/science at the time placing the product on the
market. According to LG Freiburg even single findings can be part of the
state-of-the-art / science.

Furthermore, the
exclusion in § 1 Sect. 2 No. 5 ProdHaftG refers to an objective recognizability
of the potential product’s dangerousness, i.e. the risk of failure, which is
linked to the conception in general.

In conclusion, the ruling
of LG Freiburg emphasizes that there are quite low requirements for affirming a
fault in terms of § 3 ProdHaftG and that it is difficult to come to an
exclusion of liability.