Already convicted on multiple occasions in the case of defective PIP breast implants, the German certification body TÜV will have to compensate nearly 3,000 new victims, for a total amount of more than 9 million euros, their lawyer announced Thursday.
These 2,898 plaintiffs, mostly Venezuelan but also French, British, Australian, Irish, Colombian and Bulgarian, were awarded, before the commercial court of Toulon (Var), 3,000 euros in advance as well as 250 euros in legal costs, for a total amount of 9.4 million euros, payable immediately, Olivier Aumaître said in a press release.
In its judgment delivered on Thursday, the court ordered an expert appraisal to assess the damages suffered by women with PIP implants, who will then be able to obtain full compensation, the lawyer emphasized, recalling that the first decisions obtained after expert appraisals have established "final compensation between 6,000 and more than 50,000 euros."
For Mr. Aumaître, "this decision confirms that fifteen years after the scandal broke, PIP victims are still eligible to claim compensation."
In France, PIP proceedings bring together around 35,000 plaintiffs before the courts of Toulon, Aix-en-Provence and Lyon, and some 400,000 women are said to be affected worldwide, mainly in Latin America.
For Mr. Aumaître, "it is time for the German group TÜV Rheinland to abandon its strategy of denial and offer amicable compensation" because, according to him, "otherwise, the sentences will follow one after the other in the coming months for very significant amounts."
In total, nearly one million defective breast implants were sold between 2001 and 2010 by PIP, in defiance of all health standards.
Fifteen years after the fraud was discovered, proceedings continue and target the German certifier, which had never observed any breach, with the proceedings against the Var-based manufacturer PIP having ended with the death of its founder Jean-Claude Mas in 2019.
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