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17 March 2021 / Sarah Moore , Stuart Warmington
Issue: 7925 / Categories: Features , Regulatory , Brexit , Health & safety , EU
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Product liability: into the unknown

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Product liability post-Brexit: Sarah Moore & Stuart Warmington discuss what the post-Brexit ‘new world’ might look like for product regulation in the UK
  • What might the post-Brexit ‘new world’ look like for product regulation in the UK? Can the UK’s domestic regulator alone keep us safe? And what legal challenges will be created?

Irrespective of whether the words in this title trigger Frozen 2 flashbacks, or not, they pose a crucial question in the context of post-Brexit product liability.

On 31 December 2020, we moved out of the Brexit transition period, and into, well, the unknown, with respect to the network of institutions and agencies across the EU that have worked alongside our domestic regulator—the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA)—to protect patients and consumers from unsafe medical products.

The UK entered the European Economic Community, the predecessor to the EU, in 1973. A year prior, Sir Harold Evans at the Sunday Times had broken the story of the Thalidomide tragedy. Evans’s reporting exposed the UK as a ‘Wild West’ in which poorly tested drugs, with limited

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hogan Lovells—Lisa Quelch

Hogan Lovells—Lisa Quelch

Partner hire strengthens global infrastructure and energy financing practice

Sherrards—Jan Kunstyr

Sherrards—Jan Kunstyr

Legal director bolsters international expertise in dispute resolution team

Muckle LLP—Stacey Brown

Muckle LLP—Stacey Brown

Corporate governance and company law specialist joins the team

NEWS

NOTICE UNDER THE TRUSTEE ACT 1925

HERBERT SMITH STAFF PENSION SCHEME (THE “SCHEME”)

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND BENEFICIARIES UNDER SECTION 27 OF THE TRUSTEE ACT 1925
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