Empirical Study On Punitive Damages Clause Of Food Safety Law

In this paper,by means of an empirical study method of 115 correlated cases in Guangdong Province in 2019,it is found that in the process of application,punitive damages clause not only had a positive effect of purifying the food market,but also brought many problems.The first is the problem of repeated claims,that is,on the one hand,the number of repeated claims is large,which wastes judicial resources;On the other hand,there is no specific definition for the same purchase behavior and no specific quantity standard for multiple purchases within the same time period.Furthermore,the courts have different attitudes towards the act of continuously purchasing goods and filing separate lawsuits.Among them,most courts consider continuous purchase as a contractual relationship and support the one-time claim;While some courts regard continuous purchase as multiple contract relationships and support separate claims;Second,the punitive damages clause also leads to the occurrence of buying fake products on purpose,and the court has different attitudes and judgment results towards the claim of a "knowingly false buyer";Third,the inelastic fixed and single compensation multiple.The claimant can either get the compensation a minimum of 1,000 yuan,three times the loss or ten times the price,or zero compensation,which lacks flexibility.Against the problems encountered in the above judicial practice process,in this paper,it is believed that for the application of this clause,firstly,the definition of the same purchase behavior should be clarified,and the criteria of "the same time period" and "multiple purchases" should be clarified;Second,as food safety is closely bound up with people’s life,the tolerance should be relaxed for "knowingly false buyer" in the food field;Third,on the basis of relaxing the tolerance,the requirements and conditions for the claim of "knowingly false buyer" should be improved;Fourth,to ensure the effective supply of professional judgment rules to improve judicial efficiency;The fifth is to establish quantified punitive damage awards.Through the above five aspects,we can make full use of the advantages and avoid the disadvantages,to more effectively play the punitive and preventive function of this clause,and make the social co-governance in the field of food safety more effective.