Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of products have a duty to ensure that the product is safe for use. They should implement rigorous testing to ensure it will not cause harm to anyone using it.
The Consumer Protection Act 1987 states that “where any damage is caused wholly or partly by a defect in a product, every person who produced the product, put his name to the product or imported the product… shall be liable for the damage.”
A product can be defective if:
• It does not do what it is supposed to do when you purchase it. It is often difficult to tell that the product is broken until after it is in use, and then it is usually too late.
• It has a design defect. This means the product may do what it is supposed to but there is an element that is designed badly which causes risk. This can be a handle on a pan for example that gets extremely hot and causes a burn.
• There are insufficient warnings on the product or sufficient instructions for its safe use are not provided. For example, if a product does not tell you that you need safety equipment prior to use or doesn’t tell you how to use the product correctly which leads to injury.