Products liability law recognizes three types of product defect:
- Design defects are flaws that were built into the product because it was designed incorrectly in the first place. If a product is defective by design, all copies of the product will have the same problems. An SUV with an unsafely high center of gravity might be defective by design.
- Manufacturing defects are introduced when the product is made. In this case, the factory or person who made the product didn't do it correctly or introduced a new problem. A food that was contaminated during the bottling process has a manufacturing defect.
- Warning defects are flaws in the way the company packages and sells the product. The most common is a failure to warn consumers of a danger involved in using the product -- for example, that a hair dryer could electrocute you if you drop it in the bathtub. Improper instructions could also be considered a marketing defect.
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