A Romanian law firm is encouraging Romanian women who have had breast implants from French Poly Implant Prothèse to join the class action opened in France.

Law firm Benclinov & Asociatii will work together with the French lawyer Olivier Aumaitre, who started these class actions in France four years ago.

Romanian women who want to seek compensation via the class action will have to join by May 15, 2014, the latest, according to the law firm.

“Romanian patients who used these faulty implants, which have high risks of generating complications and adverse reactions should take this opportunity and ask for their rights as soon as possible,” said Raluca Curelea, partener Benclinov & Asociatii. The law firm estimates around 300 Romanian women used these implants, adding to the 400,000 women around the world that were affected by these faulty breast implants.

Poly Implant Protheses was found to have filled tens of thousands of implants with leak-prone industrial grade silicone. The founder of the company, Jean-Claude Mas, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison in 2013, and PIP was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages.

In 2013, a French court ordered PIP, now bankrupt, to pay EUR 40 million in damages to women around the world. International media however say it could be years before these women see the money.

According to the Romanian law firm, the women who will join the French class action would receive a EUR 3,000 compensation in a first stage, after 1,700 French women received compensation earlier this year.

editor@romania-insider.com