Research On Compensation Liability For Seed Quality Infringement Damage

Agriculture is a fundamental undertaking of a country,and seeds are a key to this great undertaking.In recent years,with the development of China’s seed market,various types of seed products have emerged one after another.At the same time,seed quality issues also occur frequently,and the number of seed quality infringement cases accepted by courts continues to increase.The Seed Law stipulates that if seed users suffer losses due to seed quality issues,they can demand that seed producers and operators bear the responsibility for compensation for damages.Overall,courts mostly identify seed quality infringement liability in practice through the path of product liability.However,due to the lack of relevant legal norms and the particularity of seed products,there are still some issues that need to be resolved in determining the elements of liability determination and the amount of compensation for damages in seed quality infringement cases.Firstly,product liability is not a behavioral responsibility,but rather a liability for damage caused by objects.Only when the product is a defective product and there is an unreasonable risk of damage occurring,the corresponding subject needs to bear product liability.Therefore,the determination of infringement behavior has been transformed into the determination of defects in seed products.However,China’s legal norms do not specify the defect situation of seed products,which results in inconsistent practices and a lack of standardized and operational identification standards in practice;Secondly,due to the numerous external environmental factors that affect crop growth,the damage suffered by seed users may be caused by a combination of multiple factors,making it very difficult to determine whether there is a causal relationship between the damage results and seed defects in seed quality infringement;Finally,in determining the amount of compensation for damages,the Seed Law breaks through the general limitations of the Product Quality Law,and includes the purchase price as the property damage of the defective product itself and the loss of available benefits in the scope of compensation for damages in seed quality infringement.However,there is currently no clear calculation method for the loss of available benefits,so different courts have different understandings of this,leading to serious duplicate compensation when determining the amount of damages.This violates the principle of prohibiting profit and the principle of complete compensation in tort law,and may breed illegal behavior of seeking improper benefits.In response to the above issues,China’s seed quality infringement system can be improved through the following paths.In terms of classification of seed defects,this article summarizes relevant cases from 2019 to 2021 and believes that the defects of seed products should be redefined from aspects such as manufacturing defects,design defects,and processing defects;In the difficulty of identifying causal relationships,the role of on-site seed quality identification should be fully utilized;In terms of calculating the loss of obtainable benefits,empirical research results in relevant cases in the past six years have found that a considerable number of courts have not deducted relevant costs such as the purchase price when calculating the loss of obtainable benefits.Therefore,compensation should not be made mechanically in accordance with legal provisions.When calculating the loss of available benefits,the purchase price should be combined to comprehensively determine the amount of compensation.Specifically,it can be considered to quantify the scope of available benefits by determining the commitment effectiveness of the yield indicated on the seed label,refining the calculation method of yield and output value,etc.When calculating available benefits,the purchase price should also be deducted,and the principle of offsetting negligence should be strictly observed to reduce infringement disputes caused by seed quality issues and promote the stable development of the seed industry.