Rules by market
Product liability.
In most developed markets, importing a product from outside the region makes you responsible for it as though you had made it. The Indonesian factory is not reachable by your customer, so you are the one who is.
Why you become the producer.
Product liability regimes generally attach responsibility to the manufacturer, and where the manufacturer is outside the jurisdiction, the importer takes that position.
Putting your own brand on the goods has the same effect independently, which is why private label carries the exposure whether or not you imported it yourself.
The practical consequence is that a claim from an injured customer lands on you, and your recourse against an Indonesian workshop is theoretical in most cases.
What reduces the exposure.
Specification and testing before the first order, evidenced. A product that met the applicable standard is a very different position from one nobody checked.
Traceability, so a problem can be bounded to a batch rather than to everything you ever sold.
Documented supplier verification, which shows you exercised care rather than bought the cheapest offer.
Clear instructions, warnings and labelling in the language of the market, because failure to warn is a liability route by itself.
What insurance does and does not do.
Product liability insurance covers claims from harm caused by the product, within the terms and territories of the policy.
It does not cover recall costs unless you bought recall cover specifically, and recall is frequently the larger number.
It does not cover a product that fails to comply with a regulation, in many policies, which makes compliance the foundation rather than an alternative.
Check the territory. A policy written for your domestic market may not respond to a claim in another one you sell into.
Categories where this matters most.
Anything a child uses. Toys carry the strictest requirements and the most sympathetic claimants.
Anything applied to skin or eaten, where harm is direct and traceability is everything.
Anything that bears weight or carries heat: furniture, candles, cookware.
Anything electrical, which is a category to approach with specialist advice rather than general reading.
Questions buyers ask.
Can I pass liability back to the factory?
Contractually you can try, and practically enforcing an indemnity against a small Indonesian workshop is unlikely to produce money. Treat the contract as useful and the insurance and the testing as the real protection.
Do I need insurance for a first order?
For anything that could injure someone, yes, before the goods are sold rather than after. Speak to a broker who understands your product category rather than buying a generic policy.
Does a supplier's certificate protect me?
It helps to show you exercised care and it does not transfer the responsibility. You are the producer in your market, and that position is not something a supplier's document changes.
Read next.
Labelling for your market
Printed in Indonesia and judged in your country. What has to appear, and who carries the obligation.
Traceability and recalls
If you had to withdraw a batch tomorrow, could you say which one. What to hold before you need it.
Private label and OEM
Your brand on their product, or a product developed for you. Two different deals with two different risks.
What to test, and where
Which properties need a laboratory rather than an inspector, and whether to test at origin or at destination.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.