TY - JOUR PY - 1990// TI - Protection of the weak consumer under product liability rules JO - Journal of consumer policy A1 - Mugica, SC SP - 299 EP - 309 VL - 13 IS - 3 N2 - The author examines how the weak consumer is treated in one of the main areas of consumer protection, namely product liability. One should distinguish between the weak consumer in a physical sense, especially children, elderly or disabled persons, and in an intellectual sense, namely people with insufficient education or illiterates. If the judge in product liability cases uses the model of the average consumer as a standard to determine the defectiveness of a product, weak consumers will be underprotected. The author suggests that, if the product may be used by a set of weak consumers, the producer should provide for adequate safety measures directed at this group. On the other hand, there is a third kind of weak consumer, namely the weak consumer in an economic sense. The raising of producer's liability may result in an increase in prices for products harmful to low income consumers. Therefore, consumer policy should aim at a reduction in social inequalities.

LA - SN - 0168-7034 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00411513 ID - ref1 ER -