"Working with an expert partner to leverage their experience and insights can help deliver significant savings in regulatory and litigation costs, as well as time and internal resources. "
- Sedgwick
Sedgwick’s latest cross-market survey has revealed that “regulators in the UK and EU are looking at updates to old legislation across several industries to reflect risks to consumers from technologies that were not in use when the regulations were written,” reports Insurance Business UK
The firm claims this includes “threats from the technology itself – such as data being hacked from connected devices,” and may also include “technology shifts in how goods are sourced and purchased thanks to online shopping.”
While the goal of these changes is to protect consumers, Sedgwick believes these updates will cause challenges for businesses that will need to make significant adjustments to their business processes to comply with the new regulations.
Sedgwick emphasised that while all the longer-term impacts of these regulatory changes are not yet known, it is evident that firms need to plan for risks across a variety of areas, including business interruptions, supply chain challenges, regulatory and legislative changes, financial impacts, product updates, product recalls and market withdrawals, cybersecurity issues, innovation and advancements in technology, consumer demand, and customer and partner apprehension.
Consequently, Sedgwick’s latest Recall Index has reached the product recall market at a critical time, with the service providing an essential reference for manufacturers and retailers on past, present, and future recall data and product safety trends.
Discussing the Recall Index in a recent webinar, Chris Occleshaw, Sedgwick product recall consultant, clarified that its findings are sourced from safety regulators, government resources, and research conducted with the firm’s strategic partners – including insurers, law firms, and communication companies.
“There is value in analysing recall details from the previous quarter,” Occleshaw said, “however, a core purpose of the Recall Index is to go a little bit further and help you plan for changes that may impact your business or firm, or potentially present risks to you as a brand.”
Sedgwick acknowledged that “while no one wants to admit that they will face a product recall, if plans to mitigate such instances are tested and updated – and become as routine as other business processes – then when the inevitable occurs, both your brand and bottom-line will remain protected.”
In addition, the expertise offered through the Recall Index will help businesses “honour commitments to customers, supply chain partners, industry groups, and regulators, whilst protecting [their] reputation among the stakeholders that matter most.”
