Products and Completed Operations: One Coverage, Two Phases
A commercial general liability policy can distinguish ongoing operations from products-completed operations. Whether a claim falls within either category depends on the alleged injury or damage, timing, definitions, exclusions, territory, and other policy terms.
Products-completed operations may have a separate aggregate limit. Review that limit alongside annual sales, product type, distribution, end use, and the amount of product already in the market.
Occurrence vs. Claims-Made: Why the Trigger Matters
Occurrence coverage generally looks to when covered bodily injury or property damage occurs, not simply when a product was made or a claim was filed. Claims-made-and-reported forms generally require a claim to be made and reported within specified periods and may include a retroactive date.
Manufacturer liability is often written on occurrence forms, but specialty forms vary. Review the trigger, reporting requirements, prior-acts provisions, and any extended reporting option before changing policies.
What Carriers Evaluate When They Price Product Liability
Product liability doesn't price off your square footage or headcount the way workers' comp does. It prices off what you make and how much of it you move. Annual sales is the usual rating base — a stand-in for the volume of goods out there generating exposure. Rates get quoted per thousand dollars of revenue.
Product type bends the rate. Consumer goods sold straight to end users carry more exposure than components sold to industrial buyers. Anything for children, anything touching food, anything built into occupied buildings sits in its own appetite band. The same fastener is underwritten one way for a farm-equipment maker and another way inside a load-bearing structural assembly. Put the end-use on the application, and the coverage gets built for the real risk.
The Vendor Endorsement: Naming Your Distributor
Sell through distributors or retailers and they'll ask to ride on your GL as additional insureds. A vendor endorsement does that. It stretches your products and completed operations coverage over the named vendor, so a claim that names you and your distributor covers them under your policy too.
Big retailers and national distributors treat that endorsement as the price of shelf space. It doesn't grow your liability. It hands the vendor the protection your policy already carries against your product. Vendors usually get listed by name, and some carriers bolt on sublimits or conditions that diverge from the base terms. Need a certificate confirming that vendor coverage? Email service@blisins.com.
Product Recall Is Not Product Liability
A recall is you pulling defective goods back off the market — retrieving inventory from distributors, retailers, and end users, notifying everyone affected, cleaning up the mess. Almost none of that lands inside a standard GL policy.
Product liability handles third-party claims after someone is hurt and files. A recall runs the other direction: you move first, before the harm spreads. Notification, retrieval, disposal, replacement stock — those are your costs, not damages owed to somebody else. First-party money like that isn't what GL was built to pay. A separate product recall policy is.
Example scenario: a small manufacturer of kitchen accessories finds a production defect that creates a potential burn risk. Before any injury claim is filed, the manufacturer starts a recall and notifies its retail partners. The notification and retrieval costs are direct costs to the business. Product liability coverage would respond if a customer filed a bodily injury claim — but it doesn't cover the manufacturer's own recall costs. Those typically fall outside standard GL and need separate recall coverage.
Building the Coverage Correctly Before the Product Ships
What you decide at inception protects goods that ship years later. Check that your products and completed operations aggregate matches how much you now sell and how far it travels. A limit set against a smaller revenue base won't fit a business that grew. Raise it if you did.
Look at which product categories your application actually names. Add a new line mid-term without telling the carrier, and a claim from it can open a coverage question. Entering regulated territory — children's goods, food contact, structural components — ask whether those categories hide in your exclusions or carry sublimits. Some carriers quietly restrict them. Better to learn that at application time than at claim time.
The commercial insurance intake captures product type, distribution structure, revenue basis, and end-use markets. Before renewal is the right moment to confirm your limits and endorsements still fit the account you run today.
This article is general information, not insurance, legal, or tax advice. Coverage terms vary by policy and state — talk with a licensed professional about your specific situation.