Product liability discussion and reply to edward and karen
PLEASE DO DISCUSSION BELOW AND REPLY TO EDWARD AND KAREN:
After viewing the Chinese Imports & Food Safety (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. video, consider whether U.S. retailers that utilize products or raw ingredients that are imported from China and are poorly regulated should be liable in tort for injuries to consumers who are harmed by those products. Answer parts a and b of the prompt.
- For this part of the prompt, answer one of the following points:
- If U.S. companies should not be liable, then they could be legally exempt from tort liability. Discuss the consequences of such a policy to U.S. consumers.
- If the U.S. companies should be liable, then those companies would not be legally exempt from tort liability. Discuss the consequences of such a policy to U.S. businesses.
- Regardless of your response to part a, assume that U.S. retailers do have legal liability for defective products. What steps could U.S. retailers and manufacturers take when using products imported from China that would minimize their liability exposure? For example, they could warn consumers about the potential, though speculative, dangers when using products comprised of poorly regulated ingredients or components. Given your strategy, what challenges would exist for U.S. businesses that implemented your strategy?
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive manner. Some ways to do this include the following, though you may choose a different approach, providing your response is substantive:
Discuss the challenges that would exist if your employer (or a fictitious employer) were to adopt your classmate’s strategy.
US companies that tend to buy goods from China should be very much liable for the damages that are incurred to the customers as they are mostly concerned about profit. China as per the video shared to us in the discussion “doesn’t have a real regulatory regime or history of regulatory regimes that include inspection, monitoring, and enforcement of laws” (“Chinese Imports & Food Safety”, 2012).The American companies are pretty much aware of the fact and when they decide not to do anything then it should be liable to face the consequences. There should be a tort policy that would result in making the American company liable for the bad products which they purchase in wholesale from China and make profit. The fact that people should able to differentiate between China products that the American companies are stating their own from the actual products. The US can put more FDA regulations that will help to reduce the liability of the companies and be transparent to the consumers. When the retailers hide the details then they become even mre liable for the damages that they cause but putting a mark or label that tends to differentiate between these products will help them to reduce the Liability. Comparative negligence is a scope which American companies have if they become transparent
References
(2012, Oct. 19). Chinese imports & food safety – PBS news hour (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. – YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BKe70AAU_lc (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
United States companies that purchase products from China should be liable for damages to consumers because they are delivering it to them and making a profit. China “doesn’t have a real regulatory regime or history of regulatory regimes that include inspection, monitoring, and enforcement of laws” (“Chinese Imports & Food Safety”, 2012). American companies know that and still sell the products to citizens within their country because they purchase products in bulk for a cheaper price, which in return allows them to make more money. By creating a tort liability policy that would hold American companies accountable for bad food products purchased from China which resulted in American citizens getting sick and dying, U.S. retailors would lose money. Not to mention that putting made in china labels on food products stocked on American grocery shelves would defer citizens to look for alternative even if the foreign products were cheaper.
The U.S. can minimize their liability exposure by simply by not having a greed for money, which can be done putting china labels on food products that came from them, listing all ingredients, and have more FDA inspections on products coming into our nation. “Pure comparative negligence jurisdictions allow plaintiffs to recover no matter what their percentage of negligence, whereas modified comparative negligence jurisdictions allow plaintiffs to recover only if they are less than50% negligent themselves” (Seaquist, 2012, p. 8.2). If American retail companies are willing to take a nosedive in sales by putting labels on the foods in which country they came from, plaintiffs who try to sue will be more than 50 percent negligent, because they purchased the product knowing all the details. If retailers try to hide vital information they will constantly be found liable through pure comparative negligence which will allow them to lose liability cases very easy.
References
(2012, Oct. 19). Chinese imports & food safety – PBS news hour (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. – YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BKe70AAU_lc (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
