Vicarious Liability in Groups of Companies and in Supply Chains - Is Competition Law Leading the Way?

The article discusses the concept of vicarious liability in the area of competition law. It argues that this concept is to some extent embedded in the concept of the undertaking under competition law with the consequence that parent companies – under certain conditions – can be held liable for competition law infringements committed by subsidiaries. The liability can be termed “vicarious” because it is imposed regardless of whether the parent company was involved in or ought to have had any knowledge of the competition law infringements committed by the subsidiary. Whereas such liability has until recently only been imposed for administrative fines, the Skanska decision changes this. Following this decision it must be assumed that parent companies can also be held vicariously liable for civil liability incurred by a subsidiary. It is pointed out that it is a separate question whether the Akzo-presumption rule, established with regard to the imposition of fines for competition law infringements, can also be applied in a pure civil liability case concerning parental liability. Next, the article discusses whether the results reached in the area of competition law can be transferred to other areas of the law. In this regard, the article analyses recent case law with regard to parental liability for workers’ injuries and environmental damage and compares these areas of the law to competition law. Finally, the article discusses whether the concept of the undertaking can be extended to apply also in situations where companies are not tied by ownership but by contract. In this regard the article focuses on the (possibly) emerging concept of supply chain liability

Product liability in a world of automated products and digital distribution channels

The article examines some of the legal challenges brought about by automation and digitalization. The specific focus is on product liability rules. The article examines the way in which automation may challenge both the traditional concept of a “product” and of a “defect” in the product liability directive and explores the extent to which a digital platform, used for distribution of products, could be regarded a ‘producer’ within the meaning of the product liability directive.O artigo analisa alguns dos desafios jurídicos criados pela automação e digitalização, especificamente no domínio da responsabilida-de do produtor. Averiguam-se os desafios que a automação coloca aos conceitos tradicionais de “produto” e de “defeito” na Diretiva sobre Responsabilidade pelo Produto, bem como a questão de saber se uma pla-taforma digital usada para distribuição de produtos poderá enquadrar-se no conceito de “produtor” na acepção dessa mesma Diretiva

Malpractice in Scandinavia

The article describes the special Scandinavian patient insurance system which secures compensation for patients in malpractice cases. For all practical purposes, the insurance based systems have replaced ordinary tort law rules in malpractice cases in Scandinavia. Thus, the basic feature of these systems is that proof of fault is not a requirement for obtaining compensation. Other criteria which are more favourable to the patient are applicable. The article concludes that in general the compensations systems have been successful in making it easier for the patients to obtain compensation. However, the systems also face challenges, some of which stem from the ongoing European harmonization process

Pulsed neutron fields measurements around a synchrotron storage ring

A measurement campaign was performed for characterizing the neutron ambient dose equivalent, H*(10), in selected positions at ISA, Aarhus, Denmark, around the ASTRID and ASTRID2 storage rings. The neutron stray radiation field is characterized here by very intense radiation bursts with a low repetition rate, which result in a comparatively low average H*(10) rate. As a consequence, devices specifically conceived for operating in pulsed neutron fields must be employed for efficiently measuring in this radiation environment, in order to avoid severe underestimations of the H*(10) rate. The measurements were performed with the ELSE NUCLEAR LUPIN 5401 BF3-NP rem counter, a detector characterized by an innovative working principle that is not affected by dead time losses. This allowed characterizing both the H*(10) and the time structure of the radiation field in the pre-selected positions

Occupational Pension Funds (IORPs) & Sustainability: What does the Prudent Person Principle say?

The European Union encourages individuals to save in private and occupational pension funds to complement their state saving-plans. Throughout their lives, employers directly sponsor occupational retirement saving plans, so individual employees may top up their future pensions. While the European Union clearly supports the formation and cross-border participation in these financial vehicles by adopting EU regulatory framework, the EU has also decided to determine a common investment decision standard to be used in all Member States, called the Prudent Person Principle. According to this principle, the fund - the future retirement for many - shall be managed with care, the skill of an expert, prudence and due diligence. Under this principle, the pension fund’s governing body is given a broad authority to invest the pension assets in a prudent fashion in light of the particular investment plan of a fund. At the same time, the EU is also moving towards more Responsible Investment and inclusion of the ESG-principles (Environment, Social and Governance). The question we aim to answer in this paper is how these two principles co-exist and whether, due to the new Directive adopted by the occupational pension funds in 2016, all funds are obliged to make only responsible, environmentally and socially beneficial investments

Platforms as Private Governance Systems – The Example of Airbnb

Online platforms create legal systems that can best be described as private governance systems. By private governance we refer to the fact that a private actor can take on the roles as regulator, implementer and dispute resolution body, thereby mirroring the classical roles of the state and potentially replacing state governance with an alternative, private legal order. As an example, the Airbnb platform (www.airbnb.com) regulates the rights and duties between users of the platform (hosts and guests), it implements these rights and duties by facilitating supervision mechanisms such as ratings and reviews, and it provides dispute resolution mechanisms for the users. The increasing societal role and impact of online platforms makes it pertinent to consider to what extent these private governance systems can safeguard the public values and interests which state legal orders seek to promote and protect. In this article, we use the concept of private governance to make a case study of the private legal order of Airbnb. Our analysis shows that the private governance system created by Airbnb is concerned not only with commercial matters, but also with public values as known in state legal orders. However, it also shows that the private governance system created by Airbnb can have an undermining effect on state legal orders

Foreword

[...] conflicting legal rules and norms, some pushing for the pursuance of CSR and sustainability goals and some suggesting the risk of liability for the same, were in the focus of the conference titled ‘To Pursue or Not to Pursue CSR Goals: Legal Risks and Liabilities’ held in Copenhagen on 6-7 October 2016. This conference was an initiative of the Centre for Enterprise Liability, Copenhagen University (CEVIA) and the International and Transnational Tendencies in Law centre, Aarhus University (INTRAlaw) and co-organised with the Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART) project and the CSR Legal Research Network. The speakers addressed the issue of whether companies, states and other entities that are required by transnational private regulation and soft law to pursue CSR and sustainability goals in their activities may in fact face legal risks and liabilities for doing or not doing so. This special issue presents five of the contributions, discussing the topic both from the company (private) and state (public) perspectives. [...

Procurement of Covid-19 vaccines: why were legal liabilities transferred to the public sector?

he recent release of the Covid-19 vaccine supply contract between the European Commission and Astra Zeneca has caused a political and media storm about vaccine production logistics and supply issues. A lesser noticed but controversial issue revealed by the contract is that of where ultimate liabilities should lie, which has potentially far-reaching consequences for the public purse. Many commercial contracts include so-called indemnity clauses hereby one party contractually agrees to cover liabilities incurred by the other. The European Commission accepted in Article 14 of the agreement an extremely broad indemnity of the manufacturer covering almost any and every defect imaginable whether that be the vaccine’s inherent characteristics, manufacturing / distribution, and storage issues, labelling errors or even problems due to administration of the vaccine. This is a potentially significant burden to place on the state, and ultimately taxpayers