Products
Manufacturers, distributors, and sellers in South Africa can be responsible when a defective product causes harm.
In South Africa, product liability is the responsibility of parties involved in designing, making, importing, distributing, or selling goods when those goods cause harm. That can include a component manufacturer, the assembler, a dealer, or the retailer that sold the item to a consumer.
The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 imposes strict liability for harm caused by unsafe goods, product failure, or inadequate instructions or warnings. Claims may also rest on the common law of delict. Many cases begin as individual injury claims and later reveal a broader pattern that put customers at risk.
Where more than one party is to blame, the Apportionment of Damages Act may reduce or share liability. Civil trials in South Africa are heard by a judge, not a jury.
Claim Types
The product was made incorrectly — an error at the factory that made this item different from others on the shelf, and that difference caused the injury.
The design itself is unreasonably dangerous. The injury-causing item may have been built exactly to spec, but the entire product line is harmful.
The manufacturer did not give adequate warnings or instructions about correct use, especially where the danger is not obvious or special precautions are required.
A bottle of cough syrup illustrates the difference. If arsenic dropped into that bottle during manufacturing, the claim is a manufacturing defect. If the intended formula itself caused a stroke or heart attack, the claim is a design defect. If the product was made properly and is generally safe, but it harmed you because it was combined with another medicine and the label did not warn of that danger, the claim is failure to warn.
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