The author examines how the weak consumer is treated in one of the main areas of consumer protection, namely product liability. One should distingnish between the weak consumer in a physical sense, especially children, elderly or disabled persons, and in an intelIectual sense, namely people with insufficient education or illiterates. If the judge in product liability cases uses the model of the average consumer as a standard to determine the defectiveness of a product, weak consumers will be "underprotected." The author suggests that, if the product may be used by a set of weak consumers, the producer should provide for adequate safety measures directed at this group. On the other hand, there is a third kind of weak consumer, namely the weak consumer in an economic sense. The raising of producer's liability may result in an increase in prices for products harmful to tow income consumers. Therefore, consumer policy should aim at a reduction in social inequalities.
The m o d e r n legal scholar should pay particular attention to the possibility that the adoption and application of protective norms may produce unwanted side effects with regard to unprotected people. This problem arises in the case of the weak (Ghidini, 1977) or fragile (Bihl, 1985) consumer. The category of "weak consumers" includes children, the elderly, people in lower income brackets and people with insufficient basic education or without knowledge of the language of their h o m e country.
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the weak consumer is treated in one of the main areas of consumer protection: the liability for defective products and services.
THE WEAK CONSUMER IN A PHYSICAL OR INTELLECTUAL SENSE
Ordinary Standards of Care "Underprotect" the Weak Consumer
Strict liability rules which have been or will be imposed by E C law on producers of defective products and possibly on suppliers of dangerous services shift litigation from the behaviour of the pro-