Do Vape Shops Need E-Liquid Insurance? « calcocommercialinsurance.com Blog
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Can you go without E-Liquid Insurance?
E-liquid Insurance coverage is vital to your vape business as a retailer. A simple misdiagnosis by a physician can result in a serious lawsuit. Imagine a situation in which your client who is a former smoker with an existing yet unknown lung condition starts vaping the e-liquids you sell. After a period of time, the client is admitted to the emergency room due to decreased lung capacity. It is common for the doctor to interview the patient and ask “have you changed your occupational exposure or have you picked up any new habits?” and “what do you think caused your condition?”. You client will likely say, YES I started vaping a month ago and that may be issue. After testing, the doctor concludes that it was the vaping device and the aerosol containing PG, VG, nicotine and the flavoring that caused the patients condition. Completely overlooking the fact that the patient has had a underlying issue; 20-years of smoking!
Your client is admitted to the hospital and goes through a series of tests and requires multiple follow up visits. Shortly after his initial visit, the client receives a bill from the hospital for $97,000 for their services. The client does not have the ability to pay and turns to you and asks you to pay it. Since it’s $97,000 and not $9.70 you object, then
remind the client that he smoked for 20+ years. Left with no other options the client seeks legal help. His attorney advises his client that he should sue to pay for the medical bills and makes a promise of pain and suffering and loss of wages award. In a vape product liability lawsuit, the party can accuse you with only a physicians diagnosis. Now think about your defense. How much money will have to be spent and how many expert witnesses will you have to bring in your defense? Will you be able to convince all 12 jurors who would most likely be a non-smokers/non-vapers that it was not your product that caused your clients condition? The plaintiffs will site numerous articles from the medical community, respected organizations, and will bring expert witnesses to state that the vape products you sell for smoking cessation are not FDA approved. Even if you have an unlimited budget and the entire Royal College of Physicians behind you, it will not stop the jury awarding the injured.
The best way to avoid the stress of being sued is to secure vape insurance coverage or e-liquid insurance coverage. We have an experienced claim department which has handled over 150 various claims. They are experts and are more experienced to provide defense than any other attorney.
E-liquid Insurance policy should contain the following coverages:
No Health Hazard Exclusion for the Product Liability portion of the policy. Be careful, as not all the policies which may claim not to have a health hazard exclusion are the same. Some may contain an Inhalation Exclusion. Meaning that if someone drinks the e-liquid they will have coverage. However, if they inhale it using a vaporizer the insurance company will deny coverage.
No Health Hazard Exclusion for the Personal/Advertising Injury portion of the policy: You can be accused of not disclosing certain chemicals which are in the aerosol despite listing PG, VG, nicotine and the flavoring on the labeling.
How to find the right insurance broker?
There is a saying for buying jewelry “if you don’t know jewelry, then know you jeweler”. The idea is about the same with vape insurance coverage for your business. If your existing insurance broker’s specialty is in the construction or hospitality business, it is then very likely that the vape industry is not his/her expertise. Using “CALCO” assures you that the policies we sell are specifically created for the vape industry and offer coverage for the exposures overlooked or excluded by a standard General Liability form. We have been writing insurance coverage since 2008 and also work with other brokers to place business for their client. This means, you can come to us direct or through one of our appointed brokers. If you would like to keep your existing broker we will gladly work with them. They will work directly with us and the premium will not cost any more unless they add on additional fees. CALCO has been the go-to-broker for clients and brokers alike providing e-cigarette insurance since 2008. You can find more information on our e-liquid insurance blog about the exposures you and your business faces.
Tags: e-liquid insurance, e-liquid product liability insurance, vape e-liquid manufacturers insurance, vape injury, Vape Insurance, vape shop
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2018 at 1:41 pm	and is filed under Electronic Cigarette Insurance, Product Liability Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.