Product Liability Insurance for Manufacturers: What Should You Check?
Manufacturers should check that the policy describes their products and operations and covers applicable completed-operations claims.
Manufacturers can face allegations involving design, production, assembly, packaging, instructions, or warnings. The Insurance Information Institute identifies those activities as product-liability risk sources, including a flaw introduced by a contract manufacturer. A commercial general liability policy may include products-completed operations coverage, but its exclusions and limits still matter.
Describe each product family, facility, process, component, and contract-manufacturing relationship accurately in the application. Check the insured entity, products-completed operations aggregate, product-specific exclusions, territory, and any recall coverage separately. Confirm how policy changes apply when you launch a new product or change a supplier. Keep supplier agreements, quality-control descriptions, and product-change controls current for renewals. Material changes to products or manufacturing sites should be raised with the insurer before the policy is bound.
Related Coverage
Sources
- Product liability, recall and contamination insurance. Insurance Information Institute; Product liability opening (design/manufacture/distribute/sell; injury, property damage or death; added to GL or stand-alone); What could go wrong? (roles; directions/warnings); Covering the costs of a product recall; Contamination insurance. Accessed 2026-09-25.
- Commercial Insurance Guide. California Department of Insurance; Commercial General Liability Coverage: premises, products liability and completed operations; major exclusions including damage to your work, impaired property, sistership liability and failure to perform; Limits of Insurance products and completed operations aggregate; glossary Sistership Liability. Accessed 2026-09-25.
- Commercial General Liability Coverage Form. ISO Properties, Inc.; specimen hosted by Hiscox; Recall exclusion p.5; Supplementary Payments pp.8–9; Section III limits p.10; V.16 and V.21 p.15, warnings/instructions continue p.16. Accessed 2026-09-25.
