VI v KRONE – Verlag Gesellschaft mbH & Co KG.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2021:471
• Docket Number: C-65/20
• Date: 10 June 2021
• Celex Number: 62020CJ0065
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)

Provisional text

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (First Chamber)

10 June 2021 (*)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Consumer protection – Liability for defective products – Directive 85/374/EEC – Article 2 – Concept of ‘defective product’ – Copy of a printed newspaper containing inaccurate health advice – Exclusion from the directive’s scope)

In Case C‑65/20,

REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, Austria), made by decision of 21 January 2020, received at the Court on 7 February 2020, in the proceedings

VI

v

KRONE – Verlag Gesellschaft mbH & Co KG,

THE COURT (First Chamber),

composed of J.-C. Bonichot, President of the Chamber, L. Bay Larsen, C. Toader (Rapporteur), M. Safjan and N. Jääskinen, Judges,

Advocate General: G. Hogan,

Registrar: A. Calot Escobar,

having regard to the written procedure,

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:

– KRONE – Verlag Gesellschaft mbH & Co KG, by S. Korn, Rechtsanwalt,

– the German Government, by J. Möller, M. Hellmann and U. Bartl, acting as Agents,

– the European Commission, by A.C. Becker and G. Gattinara, acting as Agents,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 15 April 2021,

gives the following

Judgment

1 This request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Article 2 of Council Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning liability for defective products (OJ 1985 L 210, p. 29), as amended by Directive 1999/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 1999 (OJ 1999 L 141, p. 20), (‘Directive 85/374’) read in the light of Articles 1 and 6 thereof.

2 The request has been made in proceedings between VI, an Austrian citizen, and KRONE – Verlag Gesellschaft mbH & Co KG, a newspaper company established in Austria, concerning a claim by VI for compensation for corporeal damage, which resulted from having followed inaccurate health advice published in a newspaper edited by that company.

Legal context

European Union law

3 The second to fourth, sixth and seventh recitals of Directive 85/374 state:

‘Whereas liability without fault on the part of the producer is the sole means of adequately solving the problem, peculiar to our age of increasing technicality, of a fair apportionment of the risks inherent in modern technological production;

Whereas [liability] without fault should apply only to movables which have been industrially produced; whereas, as a result, it is appropriate to exclude liability for agricultural products and game, except where they have undergone a processing of an industrial nature which could cause a defect in these products; whereas the liability provided for in this Directive should also apply to movables which are used in the construction of immovables or are installed in immovables;

Whereas protection of the consumer requires that all producers involved in the production process should be made liable, in so far as their finished product, component part or any raw material supplied by them was defective; …

…

Whereas, to protect the physical well-being and property of the consumer, the defectiveness of the product should be determined by reference not to its fitness for use but to the lack of the safety which the public at large is entitled to expect; whereas the safety is assessed by excluding any misuse of the product not reasonable under the circumstances;

Whereas a fair apportionment of risk between the injured person and the producer implies that the producer should be able to free himself from liability if he furnishes proof as to the existence of certain exonerating circumstances’.

4 Article 1 of the directive provides:

‘The producer shall be liable for damage caused by a defect in his product.’

5 Article 2 of that directive reads as follows:

‘For the purpose of this Directive, “product” means all movables even if incorporated into another movable or into an immovable. “Product” includes electricity.’

6 Article 3(1) of the directive provides:

‘“Producer” means the manufacturer of a finished product, the producer of any raw material or the manufacturer of a component part and any person who, by putting his name, trade mark or other distinguishing feature on the product presents himself as its producer.’

7 Article 6(1) of Directive 85/374 provides:

‘A product is defective when it does not provide the safety which a person is entitled to expect, taking all circumstances into account, including:

(a) the presentation of the product;

(b) the use to which it could reasonably be expected that the product would be put;

(c) the time when the product was put into circulation.’

Austrian law

8 The Produkthaftungsgesetz (Product Liability Act, BGBl 99/1988), in the version resulting from the amendment published in BGBl I 98/2001 (‘the Product Liability Act’), transposed Directive 85/374 into Austrian law.

9 Paragraph 1(1) of the Product Liability Act provides:

‘If due to the defect of a product a person is killed, suffers an injury to his body or health, or if any tangible property other than the product is damaged, the following entities shall be liable to compensate the damage:

1. the undertaking which manufactured the product and put it into circulation;

…’

10 Paragraph 3 of that act provides:

‘“Producer”… means the manufacturer of a finished product, the producer of any raw material or the...