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S 2456Product Safety

Commercial Law - General Regulatory Provisions - Consumer Protection from Indemnified (Liability-Free) Products Act

This legislation prohibits schools and employers from mandating the use of products that carry no legal liability for their manufacturers.

Introduced
Population
Affected
35
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 6, 2026Committee Senate Health & Human Services

Plain-English Summary

This bill establishes the "Consumer Protection from Indemnified (Liability-Free) Products Act." It prohibits employers, government agencies, private businesses, and educational institutions from requiring individuals to use products for which the manufacturer has no legal liability (is indemnified). Specifically, these entities cannot fire, refuse to hire, or deny education to someone for declining such products. The bill allows consumers or their guardians to formally opt out of using these products without providing a reason. It empowers the Rhode Island consumer protection unit to enforce these rights and allows employees to sue for damages if they face retaliation.

For younger readers

This new rule helps protect people at work and at school. Sometimes, companies make things but have a special legal protection that says they cannot get in trouble if the thing they made hurts someone. This bill says that your boss or your school cannot force you to use those specific things. If you decide you do not want to use them, you can just say "no" in writing. Your boss is not allowed to fire you, and your school cannot kick you out just because you refused to use that product.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
EmployersEmployeesEducational InstitutionsStudents and GuardiansGovernment Agencies
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

The bill restricts private employers' ability to set terms of employment, which may face challenges under the Contracts Clause, though states generally have broad police powers to regulate labor. Additionally, if the "indemnified products" generally refer to items regulated or mandated by federal law (such as vaccines under Emergency Use Authorization), the bill could face challenges under the Supremacy Clause if it obstructs federal objectives.

Estimated cost
Amount unknown
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Protects workers from corporate overreach by ensuring that employees cannot be coerced into using commercial products for which the manufacturer refuses to accept liability or accountability for safety.
  • Strengthens the social safety net by providing legal recourse and civil remedies for employees who are wrongfully terminated or harassed by their employers, ensuring they have standing to fight for their livelihoods.
  • Challenging the power dynamic between large institutions (corporations and government agencies) and individual citizens, preventing entities from dictating personal health or consumer choices without accountability.
  • Undermines public health initiatives by allowing individuals to opt out of mandates that may be necessary for community welfare (such as vaccines, which often carry liability protections), potentially endangering vulnerable populations.
  • Uses vague language regarding "indemnified products" which could be exploited to bypass safety regulations and equipment standards in the workplace, potentially leading to less safe working environments.
  • Prioritizes individual consumer preference over the collective good and the ability of public institutions, like schools and health agencies, to maintain uniform safety standards during emergencies.
For Conservatives
  • Protects individual liberty and bodily autonomy by preventing government and private entities from forcing individuals to consume or use products against their will as a condition of participating in society.
  • Upholds parental rights by explicitly allowing guardians to opt their children out of mandates in educational institutions without needing to provide a justification to school officials.
  • Checks government power by preventing state agencies from enforcing mandates involving products that lack standard market accountability, ensuring citizens are not subjects of liability-free experiments.
  • Imposes heavy government regulations on private businesses, stripping business owners of their right to set the terms of employment and determine safety standards for their own private property.
  • Interferes with the freedom of contract by declaring private employment agreements void if they waive rights under this chapter, violating the principle that private parties should be free to negotiate their own terms.
  • Increases the legal burden on businesses by creating new pathways for litigation and civil suits against employers, likely increasing the cost of doing business and insurance rates.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 94 additions

SECTION 1. Title 6 of General Laws entitled "Commercial Law – General Regulatory Provisions" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter: 6-13.4-1. Short title. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Consumer Protection from Indemnified (Liability-Free) Products Act". 6-13.4-2. Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meaning, unless the context requires otherwise:

(1) "Consumer" means an individual who enters into a transaction primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.

(2) "Educational institution" means an institution of learning not operated for profit that is empowered to confer diplomas, educational, literary, or academic degrees; that has a regular faculty, curriculum, and organized body of pupils or students in attendance throughout the usual school year; that keeps and furnishes to students and others records required and accepted for entrance to schools of secondary, collegiate, or graduate rank.

(3) "Employer" means the state and all political subdivisions of the state and any person in this state employing four (4) or more individuals, and any person acting in the interest of an employer directly or indirectly.

(4) "Employment" means an individual's entire service, if the service is localized in the state. Service is deemed to be localized in the state if:

(i) The service is performed entirely within the state; or

(ii) The service is performed both within and without the state; provided, however, the service performed without the state is incidental to the individual's service within the state; (iii)(A) Employment shall include an individual's service, performed within and without the state, if the service is not localized in any state; provided, however, some of the service is performed in the state; and

(B) The individual's base of operation is in the state; or

(I) If there is no base of operations then the place for which the service is directed or controlled is in the state; or

(II) The individual's base of operation or place from which the service is directed or controlled is not in any state in which some part of the service is performed; provided, however, the individual's residence is in the state.

(iv) In the event that any employee is denied or fails to receive wage, benefits, or wage supplements as a result of a violation of this chapter, the employee shall have available civil and other remedies available at law or equity. The department of labor and training may take any and all appropriate actions to enforce the provisions of this chapter, including, but not limited to, injunctions, cease and desist orders, and other penalties provided by law.

(v) Recovery pursuant to a violation of this chapter shall be applicable to secure recovery against the merged, consolidated, or resulting corporation or other successor employer, notwithstanding anything contained in this chapter or any law to the contrary.

(vi) This subsection is enacted in order to protect the employment interests of all persons engaged in employment in the state under existing labor contracts and shall be liberally construed in every case in order to achieve that purpose.

(5) "Employment opportunity" means an opportunity to be employed.

(6) "Government agencies" means any department, division, office, bureau, board, commission, authority, nonprofit community organization, or any other agency or instrumentality created by any municipality or by the state, or to which the state is a party, which is responsible for the regulation, inspection, visitation, or supervision of facilities or which provides services to residents of facilities.

(7) "Guardian" means a person appointed or qualified by a court as a guardian of an individual, including a limited guardian, excluding a person who is only a guardian ad litem.

(8) "Harassment" or "harassing" means following a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person with the intent to seriously alarm, annoy, or bother the person, and which serves no legitimate purpose. The course of conduct shall be such as would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, or be in fear of bodily injury.

(9) "Loss of employment" means a person who is no longer employed.

(10) "Mandate" means to officially require something or to direct or require something.

(11) "Opt out" means to decline or defer.

(12) "Private or public education" means the academic program pursued by the person in obtaining the bachelor's, master's, or doctorate degree, and that the programs include formal course work, seminars, and practice.

(13) "Promotion" means employees who have been found qualified through suitable tests for promotion to positions in other classes under the provisions of chapter 4 of title 36 and the rules pertaining thereto.

(14) "Recommendation" means a representation in favor of a person or thing.

(15) "Requirement" means something that is needed or wanted, compulsory or a necessary condition. 6-13.4-3. Prohibition of government agencies, employers and educational institutions making recommendations to consumers to accept indemnified products.

(a) Government agencies, employers, private businesses or educational institutions are prohibited from mandating liability-free products which would result in a consumer's:

(1) Loss of employment, employment opportunity, or promotion; or

(2) Losing the ability to receive a public or private education.

(b) A consumer or guardian of a consumer shall have the right to decline an indemnified product which an employer, government agency, private business, or educational institution is recommending to the consumer without incurring harassment, loss of employment, loss of an employment opportunity, promotion, or the ability to receive a private or public education. 6-13.4-4. Enforcement and employee civil remedies.

(a) The Rhode Island consumer protection unit within the department of the attorney general shall pursue a case of this nature if loss of or a threat of loss of employment, promotion, employment opportunity, or the loss of the ability to receive a public or private education or harassment occurs due to a consumer or guardian of a consumer declining an indemnified product which an employer or government agency has recommended.

(b) As a result of any violation of this chapter, employees may pursue civil and other remedies at law or equity as set forth in §§ 6-13.4-2(4)(iv) through (vi). 6-13.4-5. Public policy. Any provision of a contract or agreement of any kind that purports to waive or limit in any way a consumer's rights under this chapter, including, but not limited to, any right to a remedy or means of enforcement, shall be deemed contrary to public policy and shall be voided and unenforceable. This section shall not prevent a consumer or the guardian of a consumer to decline an indemnified product that is recommended by an employer, government agency or educational institution. 6-13.4-6. Consumer opt out of indemnified products. A consumer or guardian of a consumer shall be able to opt out from recommended indemnified products by submitting in writing that they are opting out and shall not be required to provide specific reasoning for opting out.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.