Product stewardship

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Product responsibility refers in a very general sense to the responsibility that the manufacturer or dealer of a product has with regard to this product. Product stewardship is first and foremost a political term, only secondarily also a legal one.

In a political context, product stewardship is usually used when products have defects that only become apparent during use and thus cause damage. Examples of this, which always attract a lot of public attention, are drug scandals , such as the side effects of the drug Lipobay that were recognized too late or - from earlier years - the thalidomide scandal . The appeal to product stewardship is mostly intended to encourage manufacturers of products that could potentially cause damage to take greater care in product design and in the production itself. If damage actually occurs, then this is the subject of product liability .

In the last few years, other meanings of the term have been added:

  • On the one hand, it denotes the responsibility placed on manufacturers to ensure that a product can be disposed of safely after its use. This is regulated in Section 23 of the Recycling Management Act.
  • On the other hand, in a much broader sense, this can mean requirements for the product that have nothing to do with its usability , but are placed on the production process. One example of this is the expectation of many consumers that products are not made using child labor ; Another is the expectation of food that its production should take place in an environmentally friendly manner. The fulfillment of such additional requirements for a particularly responsible production method has so far been documented by the economy primarily by means of voluntary quality seals . The best-known are in the areas of the environment ( Blue Angel ) and food ( organic mark in accordance with the EC organic regulation and several privately owned producer and trade organizations such as Bioland ), and others in the textiles area.

In addition, product responsibility stands for the degree to which an employee identifies with the product he has created. In journalism, for example, a lack of product stewardship can result in authors failing to exercise adequate care and creativity in their writing. If the controlling editor does not edit and layout, or only briefly, the product loses quality.

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