제조물책임과 징벌적 손해배상

Punitive damages have other purposes than punishment and deterrence, inducing private law enforcement, compensating victims for otherwise incompensable losses, and paying the plaintiff’s legal fees. The opportunity to secure a punitive damage award may provide significant incentive for a plaintiff to begin the long and expensive road for the product litigation. The punitive claim is not limited by the underlying cause of action, but depends only on a sufficient showing of the facts necessary to provide such relief, that is, a reckless disregard done by the defendant. The Korean Product Liability Act provides the knowledge and fault requirement. The knowledge element consists of a defendant’s knowledge on the product’s defect and its potential of harm. The knowledge requirement is met in case a defendant should have known product’s defect and its potential for harm. The fault element consists of a defendant’s failure to take proper action(for example inadequate testing procedures, defective quality control, insufficient warning or inadequate remedial procedures such as products recall or post-marketing warnings). The knowledge and fault requirements rise to the level of a reckless disregard for the consumer’s safety and justify the punitive award. The legislator of the Korean Product Liability Act has limited punitive damages to cases where significant damage to life and body has occurred, taking into account the exceptional nature of the punitive damages system under the current korean law. As we saw in the BMW car fire incident case, it is necessary to seriously contemplate legislation that eases the requirements of damages. Even if the damage requirements are eased, a limit on the amount of punitive damages will minimize the adverse impact on manufacturers. It is also necessary to add legal costs as a factor for calculating punitive damages. because the punitive damages system perform its functions to compensate the plaintiff of the long and expensive product litigation. Although it is difficult to implement the function of punitive damages system properly as treble damages, the legislator adopted a progressive reform plan in connection with the punitive damages system in light of the systematic status of korean law. If the court faithfully calculates the compensatory damages and hence even the punitive damages amount to a considerable amount, considerable punishment and deterrence functions will be achieved, which are different from the previous ones.