Violation of Duty of Care
In line with § 823 of the German Civil Code, case law has categorized the incorrect behavior of a producer (violation of duty of care) into error groups: To differentiate technically between potential defect causation, a distinction is made between four defect groups:
• Design defect
• Manufacturing defect
• Warning defect
• Product monitoring defect
Design Defect
Lawyers talk about a design defect when the whole product line shows the same defect in the technical design. Through organizational means the producer must guarantee compliance with all safety design specifications (e.g. from EC directives) and technical regulations. This will often require material and product tests in accordance with the latest state of scientific and technical knowledge.
The producer is obliged to design his product in such a way that the average user can use it without risk, in accordance with its stated intended use; any hazards resulting from a foreseeable misuse should also be considered.
For example, in the case of lifts or other means of conveyance, it is important to consider that they will be exposed to a certain amount of overload. For this reason, if the holding ropes on a lift should tear when only slightly overloaded, this would be considered a design defect.
Manufacturing Defect
Manufacturing defects are characterized by the defective production of individual parts and have nothing to do with the design process; instead they relate to the manufacturing process.
Examples of manufacturing defects: a poorly forged steam trap, a faulty welding seam on the motor, individually occurring material defects on a light grid, incorrect granulate mixture on bimetallic coatings, excessive sputtering on circuit boards.
Outliers present a special case. Outliers are production and manufacturing defects that are unavoidable or undetectable despite all reasonable precautions. Case law introduced a liability exemption for this defect group back in the 50s and 60s; producers are not liable for such outliers in the absence of fault. Nonetheless it is important to stress that liability for outliers still exists under the Product Liability Act because fault plays no role.
In line with § 823 of the German Civil Code, case law has categorized the incorrect behavior of a producer (violation of duty of care) into error groups: To differentiate technically between potential defect causation, a distinction is made between four defect groups:
• Design defect
• Manufacturing defect
• Warning defect
• Product monitoring defect
Design Defect
Lawyers talk about a design defect when the whole product line shows the same defect in the technical design. Through organizational means the producer must guarantee compliance with all safety design specifications (e.g. from EC directives) and technical regulations. This will often require material and product tests in accordance with the latest state of scientific and technical knowledge.
For example, in the case of lifts or other means of conveyance, it is important to consider that they will be exposed to a certain amount of overload. For this reason, if the holding ropes on a lift should tear when only slightly overloaded, this would be considered a design defect.
Manufacturing Defect
Manufacturing defects are characterized by the defective production of individual parts and have nothing to do with the design process; instead they relate to the manufacturing process.
Examples of manufacturing defects: a poorly forged steam trap, a faulty welding seam on the motor, individually occurring material defects on a light grid, incorrect granulate mixture on bimetallic coatings, excessive sputtering on circuit boards.
Outliers present a special case. Outliers are production and manufacturing defects that are unavoidable or undetectable despite all reasonable precautions. Case law introduced a liability exemption for this defect group back in the 50s and 60s; producers are not liable for such outliers in the absence of fault. Nonetheless it is important to stress that liability for outliers still exists under the Product Liability Act because fault plays no role.
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