Practice & procedure

In the light of a ruling in the instant case by the Court of Justice of the European Union, whereby it found that pursuant to Art 11 of Council Directive 85/374/EEC (on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states concerning liability for defective products) once ten years had passed since a producer put a product into circulation, that producer could not be sued, unless proceedings had been taken against it within the ten-year period, the order allowing the claimant’s application for substitution of the manufacturer in place of the distributor would be set aside.