Henning Veedfald v Århus Amtskommune.
Date: 2001-05-10
12 First, as regards the argument raised by the Amtskommune and the Danish Government that use of a product in the course of providing a service cannot in principle be covered by the Directive in the absence of any Community legislation on services, it is sufficient to observe that the present case involves the defectiveness of a product used in the course of providing a service and not any defect in the service as such.
15 Article 1 of the Directive, read in the light of the second recital to its preamble, lays down the principle that a producer is to be liable without fault for a defect in his product where it causes damage. However, according to Article 7 of the Directive, a producer may be exempt from liability in a certain number of cases, exhaustively listed by that provision, if he proves that the circumstances of his case fall within their ambit. In those circumstances, such cases must, in accordance with established case-law, be interpreted strictly.
16 As Mr Veedfald, the Austrian, French and United Kingdom Governments and the Commission have rightly pointed out, the exemption from liability provided for in Article 7(a) of the Directive where the product has not been put into circulation is intended primarily to cover cases in which a person other than the producer has caused the product to leave the process of manufacture. Moreover, as the Austrian and French Governments and the Commission point out, uses of the product contrary to the producer's intention, for example where the manufacturing process is not yet complete, and use for private purposes or in similar situations are excluded from the scope of the Directive. However, the facts of the case as presented to this Court do not appear to fall within one of those situations.
17 As regards the Amtskommune's argument that the product was never put into circulation since it never left the medical sphere of control of the dispensary which made the fluid and the hospital where it was used, such circumstances are not decisive where, as in the present case, the use of the product is characterised by the fact that the person for whom it is intended must bring himself within that sphere of control. Where a patient is admitted to hospital, it cannot matter whether the product used in the course of medical treatment was made in the hospital establishment or was acquired from a third party, as it might have been in this instance, as the United Kingdom Government has pointed out. Whether a product used in the provision of a service was made by a third party, by the service provider himself or by an entity linked to the service provider cannot of itself alter the fact that the product was put into circulation.
26 However, Article 9 of the Directive indicates that damage must cover both damage resulting from death or from personal injuries and damage to, or destruction of, an item of property. In the latter case, the damage must be of an amount exceeding EUR 500 whilst the item damaged must be of a type ordinarily intended for private use or consumption and must have been used as such by the injured person.
27 Although it is left to national legislatures to determine the precise content of those two heads of damage, nevertheless, save for non-material damage whose reparation is governed solely by national law, full and proper compensation for persons injured by a defective product must be available in the case of those two heads of damage. Application of national rules may not impair the effectiveness of the Directive (see, to this effect, the judgment in Case C-365/88 Hagen [1990] ECR I-1845, paragraph 20) and the national court must interpret its national law in the light of the wording and the purpose of the Directive (see, in particular, the judgment in Case 14/83 Von Colson and Kamann [1984] ECR 891, paragraph 26).
31 It must be borne in mind at the outset that under Article 234 EC the Court has no power to apply rules of Community law to a particular case, but only to rule on the interpretation of the Treaty and of acts adopted by Community institutions (see, in particular, the judgment in Joined Cases C-9/97 and C-118/97 Jokela and Pitkäranta [1998] ECR I-6267, paragraph 30).