In a recent ruling, the Italian Court of Cassation addresses the issue of product liability, clarifying that the definition of “producer” under EU legislation and the Italian Consumer Code also extends to the distributor.
Not only the manufacturer, but the distributor can also be held liable for damages caused by defective products. This was stated by the Court of Cassation in a recent judgment that overturns previous rulings by the Court of Foggia and the Court of Appeal of Bari.
The case in brief
The case stems from a compensation claim filed by a patient (identified in the legal proceedings as Ma.Ma.), who had been implanted with a cardiac defibrillator. The device was manufactured by a Canadian company and sold in Italy by its Italian subsidiary (St. Jude Medical Italia, now Abbot Medical Italia Spa).
Due to an official Ministry of Health alert warning that the battery could deplete prematurely, the patient was forced to undergo a delicate surgical procedure to replace the device. Unfortunately, due to further health complications, she had to endure a second operation.
For this reason, the patient sued Abbot (the Italian distributor), seeking damages for the defective product. Initially, however, the judges of the Court of Foggia and the Court of Appeal of Bari ruled against her. In their view, the lawsuit could not be brought against Abbot because the company was solely involved in distribution: it was not the actual manufacturer, not the official importer, and had not affixed its own name to the device.
The patient subsequently passed away, but her heir decided not to give up. Despite the two negative rulings, the heir brought the case before the Court of Cassation, arguing that under strict European regulations, anyone distributing a product within the territory must answer for its defects and cannot simply evade responsibility.
The final decision
To rule in favor of the heir, the Court of Cassation based its decision on European consumer protection regulations.
According to a landmark European directive, when an item is defective, citizens can claim damages not only from the entity that physically built it (or produced individual parts). Liability also extends to anyone who places their name, trademark, or logo on the product, thereby presenting themselves to the public as the actual producer.
Confirming this principle, the Court of Cassation recalled a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Ford Italia case of December 2024). On that occasion, the European judges clarified a fundamental point: if the trademark printed on the product matches the name of the local distributor, the latter is considered for all intents and purposes as the producer, even if they did not physically affix the trademark with their own hands.
The Court of Cassation actually goes a step further and seems—in the name of the primary objective of consumer protection—to generically rule that “under the EU directive, the notion of ‘producer’ must be extended to include the distributor of the goods within the territory of the European Union“.
A bit too far, in the opinion of the writer…
