Abstract. The author describes first the development of the Belgian case law which has now resolved that trade sellers are responsible in respect of all defects affecting the products which they sell, including those which they did not know about. The only exception allowed by the case law concerns the absolute impossibility of detecting the defect. The second section of the report describes the drafting of the Belgian Law of February 25 1991 which, like the Directive, has opted to excluse primary agricultural products and to include the development risks defence. The Belgian Law offers two innovations, in that it adds two points of detail to the Directive: it offers a definition – albeit rather an obscure one – of the concept of ‘putting on the market’ and it affirms the principle that overlapping indemnities are prohibited. The article concludes by noting the absence of any published case law since the coming into force of the new Law of February 1991. This will soon change, as the Tribunal in Brussels is due to apply the Law to a case concerning pharmaceutical products manufactured using plants which originated in China.
European Review of Private Law