Half-day seminar on product liability

"The level of consumer protection that a country chooses to adopt is directly related to the level of development achieved by that country", said Dr George Hyzler, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for Economic Services, during his opening address at a half-day seminar on product liability.

The seminar was organised by the Information and Client Affairs Directorate in the Consumer and Competition Division in collaboration with the Malta Business Bureau at the Le Meridien Phoenicia in Floriana. It was sponsored by the European Commission Delegation to Malta.

Dr Hyzler said that the last few months saw important changes in Malta's consumer legislation. "This has been due to the amendments we have effected mainly in our Consumer Affairs Act and the introduction of a Product Safety Act which were inspired to a large extent by European Union Directives," he said.

Dr Hyzler described the transposition of the Product Liability Directive as "possibly one of the most significant and most radical developments in Malta's consumer legislation" and added that the government's commitment to accession to the EU "is evidence of our determination to afford to our citizens the same high levels of protection that are provided in the most advanced economic region in the world," he said.

Guest speaker David Baker, assistant County Trading Standards Officer at Suffolk County Council, spoke about product safety. He stressed the importance that this issue is given in the UK and argued that, although a product can never be absolutely safe, one should expect it to be as is reasonable to expect since, after all, an unsafe product carries an unbearable cost to the industry that produces it.

"The aim of law is thus to help safeguard the consumer from products that do not reach a reasonable level of safety," he said.

The Director for Consumer and Industrial Goods of the Malta Standards Authority, Ing. Anthony Camilleri, said the legislative framework of Malta's participation in the European Single Market is complete. Ing. Camilleri said that the Malta Standards Authority (MSA) has an important role to play in this new scenario.

"The MSA will continue and intensify its efforts to stimulate and oversee that there is an ongoing process of improvement which involves proper enforcement of the rules," he said.

In her presentation "Buyer Beware - Buyer Be Aware", Dr Claire M. Calleja, a legal officer of the Consumer and Competition Division, spoke about Articles 56-71 of the Consumer Affairs Act.

She explained how the law provides for compensation for a defective product in the case of death, personal injury and damage to or loss of property. The injured party needs only to prove the defect in the product, the damage caused and the link between the two.