Aix-en-Provence (AFP)

TÜV Rheinland, the certifier of defective PIP breast implants at the heart of a health scandal in the 2010s, was on appeal Thursday in Aix-en-Provence in a section bringing together 20,000 victims, mostly foreigners.

In January 2017, the Toulon commercial court ordered the German giant to pay 60 million euros, or 3,000 euros to each of these plaintiffs, in provision for the damage suffered.

A conviction which TÜV had appealed.

After providing the certification before marketing, TÜV carried out thirteen inspections in the premises of the French company PIP between October 1997 and January 2010, without ever finding any breaches of the regulations.

It was a check by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products in March 2010 that led to the scandal.

Because in total, nearly a million defective breast implants were sold between 2001 and 2010 by PIP, in defiance of any health standard.

With an estimated number of victims of 400,000 women worldwide.

The role of TÜV is to "see if a manufacturer follows the procedures, if it is able to supply conforming products" but "it does not control the content" of the products, exposed the lawyer of the certifier, Me Christelle Coslin .

"The big missing from this file today is PIP (...) It is because PIP is insolvent today that we are turning to TÜV while we too are victims of fraud", a- she added to AFP, on the sidelines of the hearing.

PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas died in April 2014.

"The mission entrusted to TÜV is a fundamental public health mission, the objective of which is the protection of the patient," said Me Jacqueline Laffont, who represents 6,000 Colombian patients.

The six civil party lawyers focused in particular on the controls of raw materials when non-compliant and cheap artisanal gel was used instead of the required silicone gel.

"We are facing a company that produces 500 to 600,000 prostheses and in 2004, we did not have a gram of raw material purchased and that does not shock anyone?", Thundered Me Laurent Gaudon, who defends the interests of about thirty of French victims.

"The quantities of gel used were fundamental. If there was one thing to check, only one, it was this", adds Me Laffont.

The Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal will render its decision on February 11, 2021. In the meantime, the Paris Court of Appeal will examine on November 17 and 18 the first part of this huge legal case against TÜV, which brings together six foreign distributors of prostheses and 1,700 carriers.

TÜV Rheinland, a leading specialist in product certification, employs 20,000 people worldwide for a turnover of around 2 billion euros.

© 2020 AFP