Reply to post: Re: Has anyone ever bought german-market electricals?

Re: Has anyone ever bought german-market electricals?

"in the Anglo-Saxon world taking responsibility for the quality of the products you sell is regarded as a quaint notion holding back dynamic and innovative business ideas."

Maybe so, but the UK does actually have laws on product liability, El-Reg's favoured lawyers even have a quite readable article on the subject [1].

Some manufacturers and suppliers take their "product liability" responsibilities seriously. Maybe not enough, obviously. Maybe more prosecutions and convictions and sentences would be helpful. Maybe some of the recent car hacking cases should end up in the courts (there have been JLR-related instances, iirc).

Ever wondered why some perishable products now have "best before" and "use by" dates with ridiculous precision: Use by 23 Aug 2015 14:09 (or other seemingly meaningless dotmatrix printing on the container)?

Often, it's there because it allows the manufacturer to track stuff back. From the extended best before date, if something does go wrong a suitably motivated manufacturer can work out what else might be affected, and (frequently) stuff like which machines in which factories made it and so on. And any incidents can thus be handled responsibly. Given suitable motivation.

See anything like that in this EE case? Serial number, batch number, anything like that?

Off with their heads. To motivate the others.

[1] http://www.out-law.com/en/topics/commercial/supply-of-goods-and-services/product-liability-under-the-consumer-protection-act/

Product liability under the Consumer Protection Act (last updated in August 2011)

Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and retailers are held responsible for any injuries products cause. Regardless of any contractual limitations of liability, if a product or any of its component parts are defective its manufacturer may be liable for damage under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) or the common law of negligence.

[snip]

people who are injured by defective products can sue for compensation without having to prove that the manufacturer was negligent. It is merely necessary to prove that the product was defective, and that any injury or damage was most likely caused by the product.

[snip]

A product is defective for the purposes of the CPA if its safety, including not only the risk of personal injury but also the risk of damage to property, is "not such as persons generally are entitled to expect". [anon: well, these days many of us know exactly what to expect: Chinese tat]

[continues]