You didn’t intend for it to happen. The moment a claim arrives, it doesn’t matter whether you meant well. Florida law applies. Legal defense costs start immediately. And if your coverage isn’t structured correctly, you’re paying for all of it yourself.
Product liability insurance responds when a product your business made, sold, imported, or distributed causes bodily injury, illness, or property damage to someone else. It covers your legal defense, settlements or judgments, and the claimant’s costs.
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Most states make a claimant prove you were negligent. Florida doesn’t always work that way for product claims. In West v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 336 So. 2d 80 (Fla. 1976), the Florida Supreme Court adopted strict products liability. In many cases, a claimant only needs to show that the product was defective, unreasonably dangerous, and caused the harm. They don’t need to prove you cut corners or were careless.
And under strict liability, that exposure travels down the entire distribution chain. A manufacturer, importer, distributor, and retailer can all be named in the same claim, even if only one of them actually built the product.
Florida courts have also recognized limits on this doctrine. In Grieco v. Daiho Sangyo, Inc., 344 So. 3d 11 (Fla. 4th DCA 2022), a case decided in the appellate court covering Palm Beach County, the defense won: strict liability did not reach a third party who was injured by a consumer’s intentional misuse of a product, and an adequate warning label defeated the failure-to-warn claim entirely.
The law applies to what the product actually did, how it was used, and whether the warnings were sufficient. Understanding that framework is what makes proper coverage structure important.
A&J provides coverage education, not legal advice. Whether strict liability applies to a specific situation, or whether a specific claim is covered, is a question for your attorney and your insurer.
Florida does not mandate product liability insurance by statute the way it mandates workers’ compensation. But contracts do. And marketplaces do. If you sell through a retailer, work with a distributor, rent space from a commercial landlord, or participate in a vendor program, there’s a good chance someone in that chain already requires a Certificate of Insurance. Usually at $1,000,000. Usually naming them as an additional insured. Online marketplaces have formalized this into hard policy requirements:
| Marketplace | Coverage required | Trigger | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $1,000,000 per occurrence AND aggregate | Once sales pass a threshold (currently set at $10,000) | Amazon named additional insured; must include products/completed operations |
| Walmart | $1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate | $100,000 GMV in a trailing 12-month period, or direct Walmart notification | Walmart named additional insured; worldwide coverage required |
| Target Plus | $5,000,000 per-occurrence CGL + a separate $5,000,000 cyber policy | Vendor invitation only | Target and subsidiaries named additional insured |
| Etsy / eBay | No insurance requirement | N/A | Etsy's Seller Purchase Protection is not insurance |
The absence of a requirement on Etsy or eBay doesn’t mean the exposure goes away. Florida strict liability doesn’t ask which platform processed the sale. The underlying legal exposure exists regardless of whether a marketplace requires a certificate.
Amazon’s specific trigger timing is stated in Amazon’s own contract, which has been amended; confirm the current terms directly with Amazon or at quoting time. Target Plus requirements are based on convergent secondary sourcing; Target’s vendor portal is access-controlled. Marketplace requirements change; confirm all current requirements at the time of quoting.
Most businesses don’t carry a standalone “product liability” policy.
That means a business that already has GL or a Business Owners Policy (BOP) likely has some product liability coverage built in. Whether that coverage is enough depends on what the product is, what the sales volume is, what limits a contract or marketplace requires, and what the claims history looks like.
The right structure depends on where your business sits in the supply chain. That’s the conversation to have with an agent before a claim requires it.
Product liability pays when a defective product hurts someone. It doesn’t pay for everything that goes wrong with a product. These are separate:
| Not covered | Why / where it belongs |
|---|---|
| A product recall | Pulling a product off shelves, notifying customers, managing returns, disposal, and crisis communications require a separate Product Recall policy |
| Your product itself | If the defective item needs to be repaired, replaced, or reworked, that's not covered |
| A product that just doesn't work | No injury means a warranty or performance dispute, not a liability claim |
| An employee injured by the product | Routes to workers' compensation |
| A defect the business knew about | Coverage excludes claims where the insured was aware of the defect and did nothing |
| Professional services built into the product | Advice, design services, or a professional component is Errors & Omissions territory |
| Pollution | Standard exclusion |
Understanding the gap between product liability and product recall matters most in food, supplements, cosmetics, and children’s products, where a recall event can be as financially damaging as a lawsuit.
Florida sets two independent clocks on product liability cases. Both matter.
The limitations clock starts at the injury. The repose clock starts at delivery. They run independently. Which one applies, and when either clock starts on a specific claim, is a question for an attorney.
A&J provides coverage education. Whether a specific claim is time-barred is not a determination A&J makes.
Some products carry regulatory requirements above and beyond Florida law, set by federal agencies. These regulations don’t provide insurance. They set the standard a claim is measured against.
These regulatory frameworks define what “adequate” means in a failure-to-warn or design-defect context. A business that doesn’t follow the applicable standard is more exposed, not less.
The timing question is exactly what an agent helps you work out before it becomes a problem.
A & J Insurance Services is an independent agency in Lake Worth Beach, serving Florida businesses since 2007. Roberto Ramos Jr. holds a Florida 2-20 Property & Casualty license and shops multiple A-rated carriers to find coverage that fits the product, the sales channel, and the contract requirements.
Product liability for Florida businesses isn’t one-size. What you make, how you sell it, and what contracts you’re bound by all affect how the coverage should be structured. That’s the conversation to have before the COI request arrives, or the claim does. Roberto answers his own phone during business hours. No phone trees, no voicemail routing.
What you make, how you sell it, and what contracts you’re bound by all affect how the coverage should be structured. That’s a phone call, not a form.
Mon–Fri 9am–6pm · Sat 10am–4pm · English & Spanish
A & J Insurance Services, Inc.
807 Lucerne Ave. East Unit
Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460
(561) 586-4955
aj@ajinsuranceservices.com
Mon–Fri 9am–6pm · Sat 10am–4pm EST
Roberto Ramos Jr. · Licensed 2-20 Property & Casualty Agent of Record · FL License #P111106 · NPN 9567168
Agency: FL License #L051810 · NPN 9894692 · Serving Florida since 2007
Related coverage: Business Insurance in Florida · General Liability (includes products-completed-operations) · Business Owners Policy (BOP) · Commercial Umbrella (excess limits over the product liability aggregate)
Page reviewed and updated July 2026 · Roberto Ramos Jr., Licensed 2-20 P&C Agent · FL License #P111106
