Product Liability, Pharmaceutical and Mass Tort

Whilst the law and court procedures may vary significantly from country to country, the product alerts, and information and knowledge gained in different countries is an often-invaluable resource for mutual cooperation.

The SIG holds biannual conferences with another in planning for 2026. The subjects covered have included how the Product Liability Directive has been applied across the EU and how the new one will work from 2026; how class actions work in the EU, UK and US; and hot topics in product liability and mass torts. The SIG would like to encourage both attendance at the next conference, and subjects and volunteers for presentation.

Mark Harvey chairs the Pharmaceutical, Product Liability and Mass Tort SIG. In this capacity, he represented PEOPIL on the European Commission Expert Working Group whose work directly led to the new revised Product Liability Directive.

Mark is the partner in charge of the Specialist Claims group at Hugh James in Cardiff as well as London, where he is the Lead Partner.

He has obtained compensation for many individual victims of common but defective consumer products, as well as those of accidents overseas and arising out of travel, sport and leisure generally. He has been involved in claims in Britain, Europe, Africa, Australia and the United States arising out of medicines, medical devices and transport.