PIP breast implants certifier sentenced to compensate 400 Swedish women

Three million euros is what TÜV, the German certifier of PIP bad prostheses, will have to pay to some 400 Swedish patients with defective implants. The judgment pronounced by the court of Nanterre, Thursday 29 November, is the fifth of TÜV on this file.

This decision comes a little over a month after a judgment of the Court of Cbadation referring the German giant in court for certifying the prostheses before marketing. The certifier carried out thirteen checks at the premises of the French company between October 1997 and January 2010, without ever finding any breaches of the regulations.

In Nanterre, the court ordered the compensation of each of the patients for 4,600 euros for various damages, plus the reimbursement of the operation, valued at 2,960 euros on average. "The big downside is that there is no provisional execution of the sentence", lamented Olivier Aumaître, lawyer of the PIPA badociation, which brings together nearly 20,000 victims of PIP implants worldwide. "TÜV will appeal and it will take another two or three years" for patients to receive compensation, he regretted.

400,000 victims worldwide

Certifying counsel Cecile Derycke confirmed her intention to appeal and, on the contrary, congratulated her on the lack of provisional execution: "It will allow for a calm debate on appeal", she said. "Many of the points made by the court are points that were not put forward by the plaintiffs"arguments that the company intends to replicate in the second instance, she added, ensuring that "For eight years, we have mostly favorable decisions for TÜV Rheinland".

In January 2017, TÜV had already been ordered to pay 60 million euros of provisions to 20,000 complainants by the Commercial Court of Toulon, in another part of the case. The company also appealed this conviction.

"In the context of "Implants files", confirmation of the responsibility of one of the main notified bodies in Europe reinforces our conviction », welcomed PIPA in its statement. "Implant Files" refers to a survey conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 59 media partners, including The world.

In total, nearly one million defective bad prostheses were sold between 2001 and 2010 by PIP, in defiance of any health standard. Instead of an authorized gel, PIP used part of an industrial silicone normally used in the composition of electronic equipment. The number of female victims in the world is estimated at 400,000.

Founder of PIP, Jean-Claude Mas was sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated fraud and fraud against TÜV. His company was placed in bankruptcy in 2010.