By Raphaël MORENON
4 April 2025
Medicines with devastating side-effects affecting thousands of patients, defective medical prostheses implanted in large numbers of people, industrial pollution contaminating the soil and affecting the health or property of local residents over a wide area... Massive damage to public health or the environment poses considerable legal challenges. For victims, establishing the causal link, accurately assessing the damage and obtaining individual compensation can be like an obstacle course, often unequal to those responsible - pharmaceutical laboratories, manufacturers, etc. Aware of these major challenges, the French legislature has introduced specific group actions in the fields of public health and the environment. Although they share the common objective of facilitating compensation for harm suffered by a large number of people, these two actions have distinct characteristics and procedures, adapted (or attempting to be adapted) to the nature of the problem...
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