英语论文网

f consumer representatives in the formulation of social and economic policies. [76]

The passage of the Consumer Act of the Philippines is regarded as an important development in product liability law as “it is a law that is meant to protect the consumers by providing for certain standards whenever they purchase or use consumer products.” [77] A consumer is defined as “a natural person who is a purchaser, lessee, recipient or prospective purchaser, lessor or recipient of consumer products, services or credit,” [78] while consumer products and services are “goods, services and credits, debts or obligations which are primarily for personal, family, household or agricultural purposes, which shall include but not limited to food, drugs, cosmetics, and devices.” [79]

Stressing the duty of the State to protect the consumers, the Consumer Act contains several Articles declaring its policies. For the Chapter on Consumer Product Quality and Safety, it provides:

Declaration of Policy. - It shall be the duty of the State:

(a) to develop and provide safety and quality standards for consumer products, including performance or use-oriented standards, codes of practice and methods of tests;

(b) to assist the consumer in evaluating the quality, including safety, performance and comparative utility of consumer products;

(c) to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury associated with consumer products;

(d) to undertake research on quality improvement of products and investigation into causes and prevention of product related deaths, illness and injuries;

(e) to assure the public of the consistency of standardized products. [80]

By requiring the adoption of and compliance with safety and quality standards, the law provides protection against hazards to the consumers’ health and safety. Hence, a manufacturer who produces goods which does not meet the quality and safety standards set by the government agencies specified in the Consumer Act is already liable under the said law, even if no one has been injured by the sub-standard product. “In product liability law, certain standards are already imposed by special laws and the rules and regulations of proper government agencies. Certain acts or omissions are expressly prohibited by statutes thereby making violation thereof negligence per se.” [81] The prohibited acts under the Consumer Act can be found in Articles 18, 40, 46, 64, 76, 106, and 110-115.

Article 40 is applicable to food donations as this enumerates the prohibited acts under the Chapter on Food, Drugs, Cosmetics and Devices. The sub-sections relevant to this thesis are:

Prohibited Acts - The following acts and the causing thereof are hereby prohibited:

a) the manufacture, importation, exportation, sale, offering for sale, distribution, or transfer of any food, drug, device or cosmetic that is adulterated or mislabeled;

b) the adulteration or misbranding of any food, drug, device or cosmetic; … [82]

The strict liability provision in the Consumer Act which expressly provides for liability for defective products independently of fault provides:

Liability for the Defective Products – Any Filipino or foreign manufacturer, producer, and any importer, shall be liable for redress, independently of