Platform Economy and Product Liability: Old Rules for New Markets

According to statistics, Amazon is one of the most-used online marketplaces worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns to reduce the spread of the virus have shown how critical online marketplaces are to enable e-commerce and keep commercial transactions alive, especially in such times when regular commerce is disrupted. However, when we buy online, we have no chance of examining whether the product works or whether it is defective. If something goes wrong when we buy a product from a third-party seller through Amazon, as consumers, we then face the challenge of trying to file a claim for the damages that might have arisen due to the defectiveness of the product. This article explores Amazon’s position in this scenario, with reference to the case law from both US and EU courts and regulations, not solely from the point of view of Product Liability Law, but also according to the E-Commerce Directive liability.

Liability from the use of medical artificial intelligence: a comparative study of English and Taiwanese tort laws

Background: Modern artificial intelligence applications are appearing in healthcare and medical practices. Artificial intelligence is used both in medical research and on patients via medical devices. The aim of this paper is to examine and compare English and Taiwanese tort laws in relation to medical artificial intelligence. Methods: The methodologies employed are legal doctrinal analysis and comparative law analysis. Results: The investigation finds that English tort law treats wrong diagnostic or wrong advice as negligent misstatement, and mishaps due to devices as a physical tort under the negligence rule. Negligent misstatement may occur in diagnosis or advisory systems, while a negligent act may occur in products used in the treatment of the patient. Product liability under English common law applies the same rule as negligence. In Taiwan, the general principles of tort law in Taiwan’s Civil Code for misstatement and negligent action apply, whereas the Consumer Protection Act provides for additional rules on product liability of traders. Conclusions: Safety regulations may be a suitable alternative to tort liability as a means to ensure the safety of medical artificial intelligence systems.

IoT Security-Quality-Metrics Method and Its Conformity with Emerging Guidelines

This study proposes a security-quality-metrics method tailored for the Internet of things (IoT) and evaluates conformity of the proposed approach with pertinent cybersecurity regulations and guidelines for IoT. Cybersecurity incidents involving IoT devices have recently come to light; consequently, IoT security correspondence has become a necessity. The ISO 25000 series is used for software; however, the concept of security as a quality factor has not been applied to IoT devices. Because software vulnerabilities were not the device vendors’ responsibility as product liability, most vendors did not consider the security capability of IoT devices as part of their quality control. Furthermore, an appropriate IoT security-quality metric for vendors does not exist; instead, vendors have to set their security standards, which lack consistency and are difficult to justify by themselves. To address this problem, the authors propose a universal method for specifying IoT security-quality metrics on a globally accepted scale, inspired by the goal/question/metric (GQM) method. The method enables vendors to verify their products to conform to the requirements of existing baselines and certification programs and to help vendors to tailor their quality requirements to meet the given security requirements. The IoT users would also be able to use these metrics to verify the security quality of IoT devices.

Compensation for Harm Caused to the Consumer's Health according to the Norms on Product Liability: Principal Directions for Improving Russian Legislation based on the Results of a Study of Foreign Experience

Despite the fact that cases of harm caused as a result of defects in goods, works and services represent the third most common special type of tort in Russia, with which claims for compensation for health damage are associated, the legislation does not provide additional insurance means of protection for the consumer. In judicial practice, the problems of determining the basis of tort liability for such harm, its nature and size according to Article 1086 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation remain relevant. Foreign experience shows that many of these problems can be solved through the introduction of special evidentiary tests and the development of norms on product liability, the use of institutes of insurance of the risk of harm and liability. The paper presents a comparative legal study of the procedure and conditions for compensation for the harm caused to consumer health in Russia and foreign countries. Special attention is given to the fundamental differences between the American and European models of legal regulation of these relations. The author studied the most indicative approaches to determining the causal relationship between the defect of the goods and the damage caused, calculating the amount of compensation, understanding the defect of the goods and its legal consequences. The goals and objectives of the study are to identify and analyze the problems of legal regulation of compensation for harm caused to consumer health in Russia, study foreign experience and identify fundamentally significant areas of improvement of Russian legislation in this area. The expediency of establishing in the domestic legislation special presumptions of the presence of a defect in the goods, the origin of harm from such a defect for cases of causing damage to health during the operation of certain categories of goods is justified, a set of conditions is given, under which such a step may become possible. The prospects for the development and implementation of insurance methods of compensation for harm in this area, including mandatory no-fault insurance, are determined.

DC-Link Capacitor Voltage Balancing Control of a Five-Level Regenerative AC Electronic Load Using One-Cycle Control

High voltage electric power equipment requires rigorous regulation testing to specific standards which ensure proper and safe operation in the grid. Manufacturers conduct these tests in order to prove standard compliance and product liability. Variable linear or nonlinear loads are necessary for testing medium voltage (MV) high power AC power converters. Generally, those AC power converters or power supplies require performance validation, burn-in and/or lifetime testing under different load conditions, defined by the end-user or standards for the given applications. For flexible and efficient MV verification testing, this paper presents a five-level multilevel converter-based MV regenerative AC electronic load with one-cycle control (OCC), which is based on five-level diode-clamped multilevel converters with back-to-back structure and can emulate any impedance load. In this paper, especially the dc-link capacitor voltage balance of the proposed multilevel MV regenerative AC load is deeply analyzed. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the dc-link voltage balance performance of the proposed multilevel MV regenerative AC electronic load.

The Law and Regulation of Medicines and Medical Devices

This book focuses on the science and regulatory policy and law surrounding the discovery, development, and marketing of new medicines. It reviews consumer protection and intellectual property laws that are applicable to the development and commercialisation of medicinal products. It also provides a deeper understanding of the scientific and technical issues for lawyers and legal issues for those involved with regulatory policy and decision-making, such as senior executives in the pharmaceutical industry. The book covers the European and UK legislation on medicines and healthcare products together with the UK implementing legislation and instruments, and key case law. It discusses the structure and function of the regulatory authorities, applications to carry out clinical trials, intellectual property issues, product liability issues, and litigation.

PRODUCT LIABILITY: A CHANGING PLAYING FIELD?

Product liability in South Africa has historically been classified as falling within the sphere of the law of delict generally; with fault being a necessary element for liability. However, this historical classification has changed with the dawn of a new era in consumer law. The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, and more specifically section 61, seems to impose liability without fault on certain parties for harm caused by their goods or products. Section 61, on the face of it, appears to be extremely beneficial for consumers who wish to tackle larger companies and defendants in product liability cases. In practice, though, this may not be the case as section 61 shares a number of similarities with the European Directive on Product Liability of 1985 and the United Kingdom Consumer Protection Act 1987, neither of which has been entirely successful in eliminating fault. This article considers the common-law system which has been applied to product liability cases in the past, and thereafter considers the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act which amend the principles applicable, in order to determine whether section 61 will benefit consumers. The article will further look at how similar provisions in Europe have been interpreted and applied by courts in order to assess the potential problems which might arise fromsection 61 in South Africa. Once these problems have been identified, this article will address a provision which is unique to the South African statute which may go some way in bringing about a different result in South Africa, thereby avoiding the problems faced in Europe.