Product indemnity insurance usually means product liability: cover for injury or damage caused by something your business supplied. It is a different cover from professional indemnity, which answers for advice, and it follows the product through a supply chain in a way that surprises businesses who only ever resold something.
What it covers
Injury to a person or damage to property caused by a defect in a product you manufactured, imported, branded or supplied. It sits alongside public liability on most business policies and is frequently written as a combined limit with it, because the two answer the same kind of harm from different causes.
Who carries it in a supply chain
Liability under consumer protection law can attach to the producer, to anybody who puts their name on the product as if they made it, and to an importer bringing goods into the market. A distributor who cannot identify their supplier can be treated as the producer, which is why records of where stock came from matter as much as the policy.
Where professional indemnity joins
A business that both designs and supplies has both exposures. The design error is professional indemnity; the defective item is product liability. Where a product fails because of a design fault the two can overlap, which is another reason to hold them with the same insurer.
Questions people ask about product indemnity insurance
Is product indemnity the same as professional indemnity?
No. Product liability covers harm caused by something you supplied; professional indemnity covers financial loss caused by your advice or work.
Do I need it if I only resell?
Frequently yes. An importer or a business that brands goods as its own can be treated as the producer, and a distributor who cannot name their supplier can be too.
Is it separate from public liability?
It is usually a section of the same policy, often sharing a limit, because both answer for injury and damage rather than for financial loss.