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Specialised Cover

Product Liability

Third-party bodily injury or property damage caused by a product after it has left your premises. Exposure does not end at dispatch, and for exporters it does not end at the national border either. Cover is normally written with a retroactive date and a defined territorial and jurisdictional scope, both of which decide whether a claim is met.

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Coverage at a Glance
Sold & Delivered

Injury or damage after the product has left you

Territory & Jurisdiction

Where a claim may be brought and heard

Retroactive Date

Which past production years remain covered

Defence Costs

Legal costs of defending a product claim

PostDelivery
TerritoryDefined
RetroDate Applies
ExportsRated Separately
Coverage

What product liability answers for

Cover for injury or damage caused by something you made or supplied, after it has left your premises and is in somebody else's hands.

Third party bodily injury
Injury to a person caused by a defect in the product, including compensation and the legal costs of defending the allegation.
Third party property damage
Damage to property other than the product itself. The failed component is not covered; what it damaged when it failed generally is.
Legal defence costs
The cost of defending a claim, which on an export claim in an unfamiliar jurisdiction can exceed the damages that were being argued about.
Export territory and jurisdiction
Where the policy answers and under whose courts. Cover written for India alone does not respond to a claim brought abroad, and this is the clause that decides whether an export claim is covered at all.
Vendors extension
Extends the manufacturer's cover to the distributor or retailer selling the product. Frequently required by a buyer as a condition of a supply contract.
Product recall, separately
The cost of withdrawing a product from the market is a different cover and is not included in a standard product liability policy. Where a recall is the realistic risk, it has to be asked for by name.
Advisory approach

Where you sell matters more than how much you sell

The single largest driver of both the terms and the price on this cover is the export split, and specifically which countries. A manufacturer selling entirely within India and one selling a fifth of the same output into North America are underwritten as different risks, because the legal environment the claim would be brought in is different. A total turnover figure with no split cannot be quoted accurately, and a policy placed on one is likely to be placed wrongly.

The second thing worth getting right is what triggers the cover. Most Indian product liability is written on an occurrence basis, but claims-made forms exist and behave very differently on a product that may fail years after it was sold. For anything with a long life in service, this is the clause to read first.

We also ask what the buyer's contract requires, because increasingly the limit and the wording are set by the customer rather than by the risk. Placing a policy that does not meet the contract wording is a common and expensive way to satisfy nobody.

FAQ

Common Questions

No. Product liability responds to the injury or damage the product caused to others. Replacing or repairing your own product is a commercial cost, and guarantee or warranty liability is a separate matter that this policy specifically excludes.
It depends on what you make and who buys it. Domestic claims are made and defended here too, and buyers increasingly require the cover contractually. What changes with export is the scale of the exposure and the cost of defending a claim abroad.
Not as standard. Recall expense is a distinct cover with its own conditions and it must be asked for specifically. Where a recall would be the realistic consequence of a defect, buying liability cover alone leaves the larger cost uninsured.
Public liability answers for injury or damage arising from your premises and operations. Product liability answers for what happens after the product has left you and is being used by somebody else. A manufacturer usually needs both, and they are often written together.
By the realistic worst case rather than by turnover, tempered by what the buyer's contract requires. The right question is what a serious injury claim in your principal export market would cost to defend and settle, which is a different figure from a share of sales.
What the product is and what it is used for, annual turnover split between India and export, the countries exported to, and the limit of indemnity wanted.