If you sell your own products as part of your business, you have to be very careful to ensure that your product is free from any defects or safety issues that could potentially cause harm to your customers or hinder you from running a successful business. If you don’t do this, not only could you cause serious harm to someone, but you could be on the receiving end of a product liability lawsuit!
Ensuring your products are safe might seem like a daunting task, but as long as you’re diligent and you do the work, you should be fine. Here are some tips to help you get it right and say goodbye to product liability claims:
Set Up a Risk Transfer Program
If you use components like Heavy Duty Ball Casters or exhaust gaskets that are sourced from a third party, not only should you ensure that you purchase the best quality parts you can find, but you should also aim, where possible to set up a risk transfer program, which means that your company will not be held liable should your product fail and cause issues due to the components supplied by the third party. A good attorney will help you draw up a binding agreement to this effect, and you really should get this in place at the beginning of your working relationships with any suppliers.
Collect all Necessary Information
If you are importing goods or supplies from another area, it is up to you to gather all of the necessary information about the goods from the supplier. This includes making sure that you are sent safety warnings, product labels, instructions and any other documentation that could have a bearing on the safety of the goods when they reach the end user.
Make Safety a Part of Your Design
In the design stage, as well as thinking about how your products look, perform and feel, you should also be thinking about how safe they are and, wherever practical, you should aim to add safety features to the design. Once a prototype has been made, put it through rigorous testing to ensure that it meets your country’s safety guidelines and make any modifications you can think of to increase its safety.
Maintain Accurate Records
When you manufacture products, you must pay attention to local regulatory requirements and the regulatory requirements of any other countries you plan to sell in. A big part of this will be maintaining accurate records of everything from supplier and components used to design specs and manufacturing processes and quality control. If you have all of this paperwork on file, then should a problem arise where you need to defend against a liability claim, you will be better prepared to do so.
Ask for Consumer Feedback
Once your product is out there, it makes sense to ask for and make it easy for consumers to deliver feedback. If you do this, you might just be made aware of potential safety issues before they become a big problem, so you can issue a product recall or redesign your products to make them safer and avoid future product liability claims.
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