Environmental Due Diligence Focusing on Products
Bloomberg Law Reports Vol. 2Tzvi Levinson, Christina Hadjidemetriou and Julia Lietzmann Adv. June 2008
In the Industrial context, environmental law deals mostly with production sites which affect the environment (air pollution, sewage, etc.). Recent developments in the field of environmental law, transferring attention to products as well, during their use and upon end of life of the products. New legislation with advanced environmental principles imposes responsibility on producers even after they have sold the product to customers and it went out of the factory.
Such responsibility might arise if, for example, during the use of it the customer will suffer damage caused by exposure to certain chemical contained in the product, or when disposing of the product as waste at the end of his life, this chemical will cause damage to the ground or water source. This legal change of environmental legislation requires lawyers dealing with environmental laws to know how to perform for the manufacturer, or for someone interested in acquiring the enterprise, internal compliance processes and due diligence to examine the legal implications of these. The article deals with this issue and brings some examples of new environmental legislation that extends the manufacturer's warranty.