Punitive Damages under Article 51 Consumer Protection Law
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lee, Yi-Ing
Abstract
Since Consumer Protection Law came into force in 1994, our legislators have introduced “punitive damages system” stemming from common law system. The purposes of legislation is to punish and deter the enterprises which commit highly censurable and illegal behavior as well as to protect consumers’ safety. Because punitive damages are non-compensatory damages, they are debating under the compensatory principles for damages in our civil code.his thesis includes the history, social background and purposes of this system to understand its rationale and justify its validity and necessity. This part mainly adopted comparative law analysis, discussing the confrontation of punitive damages between common law system and civil law system. This thesis considers that civil law has multiple functions. Usually, compensation is the most important function. However, prevention or deterrence may be the primary function under some circumstances. Punitive damages system is part of the prevention mechanism under civil law, and it is helpful to make up the enforcement gap due to the dual public and private systems. onsidering that punitive damages system focuses on deterrence, the constitutive requirements and legal effect should be in accordance with the deterrent purpose to satisfy proportionality principle. The second part of this thesis starts from domestic judicial practice supplemented with the approach of case analysis to analyze the interpretation and application of Article 51 Consumer Protection Law. To meet the regulation system, this thesis discusses contractual liability cases, “standard contract”, “mail order merchandise and door-to-door sales” and “misleading advertising”, and tort liability cases in proper sequence.oncerning the application scope of punitive damages, this thesis approves that punitive damages are applicable to contractual liability cases. However, the breach must be serious as fraud or oppression. There are two issues raised from products and service liability cases. First, the explanation of subjective requirement of Article 51 Consumer Protection Law is incomplete. According to comparative law approach and the purposes of punitive damages, “negligence” under the requirement of Article 51 should limit to “gross negligence” from an interpretivists viewpoint. The law should be modified in the future. The second is to explore whether the employer, i.e. the enterprise, blameworthy when the employee of an enterprise commits wrongs. This issue is related to vicarious liability and punitive damages.ast, this thesis finds that domestic cases present significant differences amoung the important issues in interpretation and application of Article 51 Consumer Protection Law. Moreover, our judicial practice has yet to provide a set of systematic guidelines to decide proper amount of punitive damages. The rough and rash application jeopardizes the deterrent effect of this article. Therefore, the thesis expects to point out certain defects of this article, and provide solutions and suggestions for legal reform.
Subjects
punitive damages
Consumer Protection Law
damages
deterrence
contractual liability
products liability
service
strict liability
intentional
negligent
vicarious liability
Type
thesis
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