Contaminated milk creates new liability regime
China recently suffered its biggest-ever food safety incident, involving Sanlu Dairy. The country’s product liability laws are now undergoing unprecedented change. By Satpal Gobindpuri and Sammy Fang, DLA Piper.
Issue: May 2009
Keywords (click to search):
food safety
product liability
Sanlu Dairy
melamine
Food Safety Law
tort
criminal liability
civil liability
On January 22 2009, five courts across China handed out a series of verdicts in respect of the melamine contaminated milk case involving the Sanlu Group – the biggest food safety scandal in Chinese history. It has been reported that contaminated milk products have claimed the lives of at least six babies and left 296,000 others with various urinary tract ailments, including kidney stones. The verdicts handed down by the courts were unprecedented in their scale, with capital punishment for two of the accused, a suspended death penalty for one, and life imprisonment for three of the accused, including Tian Wenhua, the former chairman of the Sanlu Group. Tian was also fined approximately Rmb25 million (about US$3.7 million). The Sanlu case and the severity of the punishments handed out is likely to mark the beginning of China’s concerted efforts to tackle food safety violations and should set a precedent for...
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