However careful you are sometimes a product you have supplied may cause accidental injury or damage.
Product liability provides cover for bodily injury, illness, disease, loss of, or damage to, third party property caused by the products you sell, supply, service and/or repair.
Do I need product liability insurance?
Your business may be held legally responsible for goods you supply even if you do not manufacture them.
It’s important to have product liability if:
- Your business’s name is on the product
- Your business repairs, refurbishes, repackages or changes a product
- You use material or components or import goods from outside the European Union
- You cannot identify the product’s manufacturer, or the manufacturer has gone out of business
Cover at a glance
- Personal injuries caused by a faulty product you supplied
- Loss of or damage to property caused by your faulty product
Important extensions
- Financial Loss. A faulty product may not cause any damage but your customer may force you to replace it and his costs are not automatically covered unless you have this extension.
- Product recall. Again if there are a lot of products which may cause damage they will need to be recalled and again this is an optional extension.
- Part products extension. Standard cover excludes the cost of replacement of the defective or damaged part. If you are supplying large multi component products, eg generator, printing machinery, forklift etc as one item or under one contract, some insurers may deem the complete item to be the product. Should a small part cause a fire you may be left to fund the replacement price of the whole machine rather than just the faulty item.
Claim examples
A company making small plastic components supplied shelf brackets. Over time exposure to sunlight caused them to become very brittle and snap. One of their customers had used the brackets in very high end display cabinets leading to a large number of claims for expensive damaged porcelain and glassware. Eventually insurers paid out over £700,000 for a faulty item which had been sold for less than 1p.
Why use a broker?
At J Bennett & Son we tailor the policy to suit you and your needs because every business is different.
You will have your own dedicated account manager, who will make it easy for you to switch from your existing insurer. We offer you flexible payment options, bespoke insurance solutions, specialist knowledge and impartial advice.
If a claim has to be made, we work with you, the insurer and the loss adjusters to get it settled as quickly and as satisfactorily as possible, removing the hassle and worry you may have. It’s why so many of our existing customers have been with us for over a decade.
We’ve been providing insurance that is built around you since 1908. For a personal approach to insurance and a chat about your needs, call us on 01494 450 450 or email us at insure@jbennett.co.uk.
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Download our helpful fact sheet on Product Liability Insurance simply explained.
