Enter to open, tab to navigate, enter to select
Consumer Product Toolkit
Practical Law Toolkit w-018-4005 (Approx. 12 pages)
Consumer Product Toolkit
by Practical Law Commercial Transactions
| Maintained • USA (National/Federal) |
A collection of resources to assist counsel in identifying key legal and business issues when manufacturing, distributing, or selling consumer products.
Consumer product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers must manage several types of legal risk, including:
- Compliance risk. Consumer product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are subject to myriad federal and state laws designed to ensure that consumers are safe from dangerous products and deceptive practices, including:
- manufacturing, distributing, or selling of defective products;
- harassing or fraudulent telemarketing calls;
- mislabeling products;
- using deceptive sales practices, including online sales; and
- violating a consumer's privacy rights.
- Product liability risk. Consumer product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers also face the risk of product liability lawsuits brought by consumers injured by a defective product. These are typically brought pursuant to state law common law theories of liability or state product liability statutes, but consumers can bring federal product liability claims pursuant to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. In most cases, every supply chain entity is a proper defendant in these lawsuits. Therefore, product liability risk also includes claims for indemnity and contribution brought by another entity in the supply chain.
- Contractual risk. Consumer product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers also face the risk that one of its supply chain partners will:
- breach the terms of its supply chain contracts; or
- fail to comply with consumer protection regulations or product liability laws, leaving every other supply chain entity subject to liability for the failure.
Consumer protection laws are enforced by federal and state agencies, including the:
- Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
These agencies can pursue enforcement actions against non-compliant manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. In some instances, consumer protections laws also give consumers a private right of action.
This toolkit is a collection of maintained resources designed to help product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers mitigate these risks. It includes resources discussing how to:
- Comply with applicable consumer protection laws.
- Minimize the risk of product liability lawsuits.
- Draft and negotiate supply chain contracts, including:
- indemnification agreements;
- limitation of liability clauses; and
- warranties.
This toolkit does not include resources discussing the laws and regulations that protect consumers' financial rights or consumer protection laws addressing advertising and marketing. For information about those laws, see Practice Note, US Consumer Regulatory Law: Overview; Practice Note, Advertising: Overview; and Advertising and Marketing Toolkit.