PSNet & Richard,
The legal questions can only be answered by European lawyers and
courts. As far as I know, there have not been any cases which looked to
hold non-Europeans responsible to the extent they would be fined or serve
jail time. If it is a major problem we can expect international
negotiations to extradite folks for this.
But practically, if the product is sold by a company which has any
European presence - a subsidiary, dealer or importer - the courts probably
could find a way to hold one of those folks responsible. I know of a case
where the President of a sub was jailed because a product didn't meet
European safety requirements. I have heard of another case where an
executive of a large company was handcuffed and taken away at immigration
because he was named as being responsible for some action that was not
allowed in Europe - unfortunately, this poor fellow was coming to Europe
for a vacation, not on company business and his wife and family were just
left standing there to fend for themselves...
For smaller companies, I recommend that they get one of their Euro
contacts - importers, dealers, etc. - to countersign the MDoC to provide
the 'going to jail' person. There are, also, some firms (legal firms, as I
remember) who will sign and hold your MDoC, etc for a nominal fee...
What other routes might be available? perhaps others have some
ideas...
- - - - -
Peter E Perkins
Principal Product Safety Consultant
Tigard, ORe 97281-3427
+1/503/452-1201 phone/fax
[email protected] email
visit our website:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/peperkins
- - - - -
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