PUBLIC SERVICES CARE
Fire and police departments, ambulance services, gas & electric companies, etc. who need to respond quickly and efficiently absolutely require products that are safe, dependable and perform as claimed. These groups will be very decisive when purchasing products to ensure a product complies with various safety standards. Many times the standards are 'public', but some services may have 'private' standards to which a product must also comply.
LEGAL ENTITIES CARE
These groups are the legal firms, associations and groups who cater to product liability Litigation. The current state of product litigation stated by The Restatement Third of Torts
7 (American Law Institute
8 ) contains a section in Chapter 1 that says 'noncompliance with a product safety statute or regulation can be the basis of a finding of defect if the noncompliance caused the injury or damage'. Tort litigation is especially popular and lucrative in the USA.
MANUFACTURERS OF PRODUCTS, WHICH MAY INCORPORATE YOUR COMPONENTS CARE
Sophisticated manufacturers that develop and produce products that may incorporate your product are aware of all of the above groups and their demands for product safety. These companies very often set their own standards of safety, quality and performance simply to ensure that their products surpass their customers' and the markets' expectations. This leads these mature companies to establish Quality Plans (see
Product Engineering - What has Quality got to do with it?)
9 that address, among other things, product safety compliance.
So...
The final point of all this is to illustrate that a product's compliance to safety standards may be required by law, be voluntary or both. But, the demand of the market place is increasingly moving toward safety compliance-before-purchase. So product developers beware because everyone cares.
7 http://library.lp.findlaw.com/articles/file/00849/002259/title/Subject/topic/Products%20Liability_Risk-utility/filename/productsliability_1_916
8 http://www.ali.org/
9 Product Engineering - What Has Quality Got To Do With It?
