Where a manufacturer learns of a hazard after sale, a duty to warn may arise if the risk is substantial, users can be identified, and a warning can be effectively communicated. The Restatement Third articulates these factors.
The duty is narrower than the duty at sale.
Alternative Names:
Post-Sale Warning Duty, Duty to Warn After Sale
Why it Matters?
Identifiability of users is the element that most often limits the duty, since a manufacturer of consumer goods sold through retail has no practical means of reaching purchasers, unlike one selling registered industrial equipment. Registration programs and service networks that make users identifiable therefore create duties that anonymous distribution does not. That asymmetry is worth understanding before implementing registration for other purposes.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What limits the post-sale duty?
Do registration programs create exposure?
