On 21 Aug. 2024, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued the “Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Disputes over Punitive Damages for Food and Drugs” (关于审理食品药品惩罚性赔偿纠纷案件适用法律若干问题的解释, hereinafter the “Interpretation”), along with a series of typical cases on punitive damages for food safety violations with the aim of unifying judicial standards, protecting consumers’ rights and interests, and maintaining the order of production and operation.
The Interpretation consists of 19 articles, which clearly take “the extent of reasonable consumer needs” as the element in the assessment of punitive damages, and support the claims for punitive damages by consumers who knowingly purchase substandard products within this scope. The Interpretation also addresses issues such as the liability of intermediaries, small food production and processing workshops, and defects in labeling and instructions.
The highlights of the Interpretation are as follows:
- Where a buyer knows that the food brought in does not meet food safety standards, and claims punitive damages of ten times the purchase price from the producer or distributor under the Food Safety Law, the court shall uphold the buyer’s claim in accordance with the law to the extent of reasonable consumer needs. The court may determine the amount of food that the buyer needs as a reasonable consumer based on factors such as shelf life and the ordinary consumption habits of an ordinary consumer.
- If the producer or distributor alleges that the buyer knowingly purchased food that does not meet food safety standards, such producer or distributer shall provide evidence to support this allegation.
Photo by Federico Mata on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
