Research On The Rules For Determining The Amount Of Punitive Damages In The Product Field

Punitive compensation system has been used as a powerful weapon to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and to fight against counterfeiters because of its unique compensatory,punitive and deterrent characteristics.Under the promotion of the punitive damages system,the litigation rate of illegal acts that damage the market environment has increased significantly.Since the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law in 1993 clearly stipulated the punitive damages system,the high punitive damages greatly stimulated the consumers’ litigation enthusiasm,making the article 55 of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law become the most frequently cited legal provisions in the whole product dispute field.But in recent years,with the continuous enrichment of new products,the object of punitive compensation system began to produce theoretical differences.At the same time,the traditional punitive compensation system began to expose its drawbacks in judicial practice,especially the compensation determination method based on price,which began to deviate from the original intention of legislation seriously.A series of problems such as punitive compensation restraining the development of market economy,indulgent professional counterfeiters who violate the principle of good faith,failure to adapt to large-scale product infringement cases,and too narrow scope of application of punitive compensation came one after another.Some scholars even began to question the legitimacy of punitive compensation system.In view of the above problems,the crux of the problem lies in the determination of compensation rules.Therefore,this paper through four parts,focusing on the product field punitive damages to determine the rules to seek the direction of reform.In the first part,the author firstly clarifies the research object of the text by aiming at the disputes about the object of punitive damages regulation in the product field and combining with the extraterritorial legislative experience.From the definition of product connotation in the current legislation,the expansion of product connotation and extension in the new period,and how to protect the vulnerable groups in an all-round way,this paper comprehensively analyzes the dispute of subject identity in the judicial practice.Secondly,this paper introduces the embodiment of China’s traditional punitive compensation system in national law and customary law.Finally,this paper starts from the two perspectives of law carding and application status quo,and through the analysis of judicial precedent data,it shows that punitive damages cases in the product field in China are widely applicable,but there are problems such as high appeal rate,high revision rate and single litigation subject.At the same time,there are a lot of loopholes and deficiencies in the legislation of punitive damages in the product field,which eventually become the reason for the rigidity of the compensation determination rules.In the second part,from the macro point of view,this paper summarizes three principles that should be followed in the legislative reform and judicial practice of punitive damages.It clarifies the scope of punitive damages through the principle of punishability,demonstrates the necessity of giving the judge discretionary power through the principle of adaption of excessive punishment,and solves the problem of determining the cardinal number in the rule of determining punitive damages through the principle of reasonable cardinal number.In view of the existing disputes in the theoretical field,the author puts forward his own views and analyzes the basic problems in the system of punitive damages in the field of products in China.The third part,from the micro point of view,first of all,this paper analyzes the problems of the way of determining amount proposed by legal economists.Secondly,from the perspective of typical cases,this paper analyzes why the traditional rigid compensation determination model in China makes the punitive compensation system deviate from the original intention of legislation in the product field.Then,this paper analyzes the practical needs of the current legislation to endue the discretion to referees from three aspects: the difference of damage degree,the reasonable response to professional counterfeiters and the theoretical development.Finally,in view of the doubts raised by scholars,the feasibility of exercising the discretion of the referee is expounded.In the fourth part,this paper realizes that it is not easy to endow the discretion to the referee,and it is necessary to perfect the legislation on the standardized exercise of the discretion and the enhancement of its operability.Therefore,this paper classifies product dispute cases and elaborates their compensation determination rules from three perspectives of contractual liability,ordinary product infringement and mass product infringement respectively,combining with the characteristics of cases.This paper puts forward a solution for the reform of punitive damages determination rules in China’s product field.