Principle 06 of 8
Safety
Do not sell known harms, keep service promises, and allow repair.
Protects
Customers, the public
Why it matters
People trust that what they buy will not hurt them and will work as promised. Concealing a defect turns that trust into risk.
Covers
Service quality, safety, recalls, repair, and refunds (Category 8).
Practices that break it
13 subsections · 88 practices
7.2Health & Safety Claim Misrepresentation+ Honesty10
8.1Recall Delay & Safety Defect Concealment+ Honesty8
8.2Planned Obsolescence+ Responsibility5
8.3Repair Restriction+ Autonomy7
8.4Service Quality Throttling & Sunsetting+ Honesty6
8.5Counterfeit & Substandard Materials6
8.6Contamination & Adulteration8
8.7Inspection & Testing Evasion+ Honesty6
8.8Refunds, Warranties & Returns+ Accountability6
8.9Crypto-Specific Irreversibility Harms+ Honesty4
11.6Hazardous Conditions & PPE+ Responsibility11
11.7Safety Incident Underreporting+ Responsibility6
14.10Catastrophic Risk Concealment+ Responsibility5
The same principle, across industries
Every practice above, as it reads in the catalog. Numbers link to the standard.
7.2 Health & Safety Claim Misrepresentation · 10 practices
Safety+ Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.2.1 | Disease-Cure Claims Without Approval | Marketing supplements, products, or services as treatments, cures, or preventatives without FDA-equivalent evidence. | Supplements, cannabis/CBD, beauty, baby products |
| 7.2.2 | Structure-Function Stretching | Exaggerating legitimate structure-function claims to imply disease treatment through implication, imagery, or context. | Supplements, beauty |
| 7.2.3 | Reduced-Risk Without Authorization | Marketing products as reduced-risk or modified-risk without regulatory authorization. | Tobacco/vaping |
| 7.2.4 | Cessation / Quit Claims Without Evidence | Implying products help users quit (smoking, drinking) without clinical evidence. | Tobacco/vaping, supplements |
| 7.2.5 | Direct-to-Consumer Disease Awareness | Running ads that medicalize normal conditions to drive demand for branded treatments. | Pharma/biotech, healthcare |
| 7.2.6 | Pet Health Halo Claims | Unverified therapeutic or developmental claims on pet supplements, baby products, or food. | Pet industry, baby/children's products, food |
| 7.2.7 | Health Halo on Junk Food | Highlighting a single positive attribute ("whole grains," "no artificial flavors") on otherwise nutritionally poor products. | Food/beverage manufacturing |
| 7.2.8 | Anti-Aging Fear Marketing | Positioning normal aging as a problem to be solved with fear-based messaging. | Beauty, cosmetics |
| 7.2.9 | Developmental-Milestone Claims | Unsubstantiated claims that products accelerate cognitive or physical development in children. | Baby products, education |
| 7.2.10 | Lifestyle Health Branding | Associating addictive products with fitness, wellness, or self-care to recast addiction as health. | Tobacco/vaping, alcohol |
8.1 Recall Delay & Safety Defect Concealment · 8 practices
Safety+ Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1.1 | Recall Delay | Delaying recalls of known-defective products to avoid financial impact, even when defects are known to cause harm. | Automotive, baby/children's products, firearms, food/beverage manufacturing, pet industry, pharma, home appliances |
| 8.1.2 | Defect Concealment via Settlement | Settling individual defect claims under NDA rather than issuing broader warnings. | Automotive, consumer products |
| 8.1.3 | Crash / Incident Data Opacity | Collecting detailed safety data but not sharing it with safety researchers or regulators. | Automotive, ride-hailing, airlines |
| 8.1.4 | Emissions Defeat Devices | Using software or hardware to circumvent emissions or safety testing. | Automotive |
| 8.1.5 | Sleep-Product Misrepresentation | Marketing inclined sleepers, soft bedding, or bumper pads as safe despite contraindication from pediatric guidelines. | Baby/children's products |
| 8.1.6 | Maintenance Deferral for Schedule | Postponing required maintenance to preserve on-time performance metrics. | Airlines, public transit |
| 8.1.7 | Safety Defect NDA Settlement | Settling individual defect claims under NDAs that prevent broader public warnings. | Automotive, healthcare, consumer products |
| 8.1.8 | Test-Result Suppression | Suppressing internal test results that indicate safety failures (microbiological, chemical, contamination). | Food manufacturing, pharma, automotive, beauty |
8.2 Planned Obsolescence · 5 practices
Safety+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.2.1 | Limited-Lifespan Design | Engineering products with intentionally shortened lifespans through material or component choices. | Home appliances, electronics, consumer goods |
| 8.2.2 | Software-Driven Slowdown | Withholding firmware updates or intentionally slowing devices via software to render hardware obsolete. | Home appliances, smartphones |
| 8.2.3 | Feature Removal via OTA | Remotely removing or degrading features the customer already purchased. | Automotive, smart appliances, gaming |
| 8.2.4 | Cosmetic Redesign Obsolescence | Releasing cosmetic updates that render accessories, cases, or peripherals incompatible. | Home appliances, smartphones |
| 8.2.5 | Implantable / Critical-Device Lifespan Limits | Designing implantable or critical devices with unnecessarily limited lifespans. | Healthcare (medical devices) |
8.3 Repair Restriction · 7 practices
Safety+ Autonomy
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.3.1 | Parts Pairing & Component DRM | Software locks or serialization that prevent third-party or self-installed parts from functioning. | Automotive, home appliances, agriculture |
| 8.3.2 | Schematic Withholding | Refusing to publish repair manuals, wiring diagrams, or service schematics. | Home appliances, automotive |
| 8.3.3 | Diagnostic Gatekeeping | Encrypting or restricting diagnostic codes / software to authorized technicians only. | Automotive, home appliances |
| 8.3.4 | Specialized-Tool Requirements | Designing products that require proprietary tools available only to authorized service providers. | Home appliances, electronics |
| 8.3.5 | Void-if-Repaired Stickers | Labels falsely claiming warranties are voided by independent or self-repair. | Home appliances, electronics |
| 8.3.6 | Warranty Voiding by Association | Threatening warranty voiding for any service performed outside the dealer network. | Automotive |
| 8.3.7 | Telematics Data Lock-In for Repair | Restricting vehicle-generated diagnostic data to dealer networks. | Automotive |
8.4 Service Quality Throttling & Sunsetting · 6 practices
Safety+ Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.4.1 | Sunsetting Without Refund | Shutting down online-only games or services and making purchased content permanently inaccessible without refund or offline mode. | Gaming, IoT devices |
| 8.4.2 | Update Sabotage | Updates that slow or break older versions to force hardware purchases. | Home appliances, smartphones |
| 8.4.3 | Always-Online DRM | Requiring persistent internet connectivity for single-player or local-use products. | Gaming, software |
| 8.4.4 | Anti-Cheat Kernel Access | Installing kernel-level anti-cheat with system-wide access to processes, files, and traffic. | Gaming |
| 8.4.5 | Deferred Infrastructure Maintenance | Postponing track, signal, vehicle, or grid maintenance to balance budgets, increasing risk of outages or accidents. | Public transit, energy utilities, water utilities |
| 8.4.6 | Safety Investment Deferment | Postponing infrastructure or operational safety upgrades to protect short-term financial returns. | Energy utilities, mining, oil/gas |
8.5 Counterfeit & Substandard Materials · 6 practices
Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5.1 | Substandard Material Substitution | Replacing specified materials with cheaper alternatives without disclosure or engineering approval. | Construction, plumbing, dental, wedding planning, defense |
| 8.5.2 | Counterfeit Material Use | Installing counterfeit or uncertified building materials with falsified certifications. | Construction, defense |
| 8.5.3 | Counterfeit Goods Tolerance | Failing to police third-party marketplace listings for counterfeits while profiting from fees and traffic. | E-commerce, fashion |
| 8.5.4 | Used-Part Installation as New | Installing previously used, refurbished, or salvaged components while billing for new materials. | Plumbing, automotive, dental |
| 8.5.5 | Lab Substitution Without Disclosure | Using a different (often cheaper) dental laboratory or fabrication method than represented to the patient. | Dental |
| 8.5.6 | Material Grade Downgrade | Placing lower-grade materials while billing for premium specifications. | Dental, jewelry, construction |
8.6 Contamination & Adulteration · 8 practices
Safety
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.6.1 | Pesticide / Solvent Residue Concealment | Selling products that fail residue standards by withholding test results or using unaccredited labs. | Cannabis/CBD, food manufacturing |
| 8.6.2 | Heavy-Metal Contamination Concealment | Distributing products contaminated with lead, arsenic, cadmium, or mercury without testing or disclosure. | Cannabis/CBD, supplements, beauty, pharma |
| 8.6.3 | Mold / Microbial Concealment | Failing to test for or disclose mold and microbial contamination. | Cannabis, food, hospitality |
| 8.6.4 | Adulteration with Pharmaceuticals | Adding active pharmaceutical ingredients to supplements without labeling. | Supplements |
| 8.6.5 | Manufacturing Contamination Concealment | Failing to promptly disclose manufacturing contamination or quality failures. | Pharma/biotech, food manufacturing, beauty |
| 8.6.6 | Allergen Cross-Contamination Concealment | Failing to disclose shared facility or shared line allergen exposure despite known risk. | Food manufacturing, grocery |
| 8.6.7 | Shelf-Life / Expiry Manipulation | Extending stated shelf life beyond safety-supported windows or relabeling expired products. | Food manufacturing, supplements, pet industry, alcohol, veterinary |
| 8.6.8 | Cleaning Product Dilution / Substitution | Using inferior or diluted products while charging for premium-grade supplies. | Cleaning services |
8.7 Inspection & Testing Evasion · 6 practices
Safety+ Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.7.1 | Inspection Bribery | Offering payments, gifts, or favors to inspectors to overlook deficiencies. | Construction |
| 8.7.2 | Lab Shopping for Favorable Results | Sending products to multiple labs and selecting the most favorable certificate of analysis. | Cannabis/CBD |
| 8.7.3 | Code Compliance Shortcuts | Performing work that fails building or safety code, relying on overburdened inspectors or post-insulation concealment. | Construction, plumbing |
| 8.7.4 | Inspection-Schedule Evasion | Using scheduling tactics, shell entities, or jurisdictional loopholes to evade inspections; providing advance notice that enables temporary compliance. | Food manufacturing, prison/corrections, mining |
| 8.7.5 | Audit Theater | Conducting pre-announced factory audits that allow temporary remediation, without follow-up. | Fashion, food, beauty |
| 8.7.6 | Threshold Gaming | Formulating products to test just below regulatory contaminant or compositional limits. | Food manufacturing, chemicals |
8.8 Refunds, Warranties & Returns · 6 practices
Safety+ Accountability
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.8.1 | Return-Window Erosion | Shortening return windows or imposing arbitrary conditions (tags attached, original packaging) that defeat ordinary use. | E-commerce, fashion |
| 8.8.2 | Restocking-Fee Abuse | Applying restocking fees to all returns regardless of condition, or inflating them beyond actual cost. | E-commerce |
| 8.8.3 | Refund Delay Tactics | Delaying refunds through processing holds, repeated contacts, or store-credit substitution. | E-commerce, food delivery, gaming |
| 8.8.4 | Warranty-Claim Denial Patterns | Vague warranty terms, narrow exclusions, or burdensome documentation that systematically deny valid claims. | Home appliances, plumbing, pet insurance, veterinary |
| 8.8.5 | Refund Gatekeeping in Software | Imposing arbitrary play-time limits or opaque processes that prevent refunds for defective products. | Gaming |
| 8.8.6 | Lost-Package Accountability Gaps | Claim processes with short windows, burdensome proof, or liability caps that leave consumers uncompensated. | Logistics, shipping/freight |
8.9 Crypto-Specific Irreversibility Harms · 4 practices
Safety+ Honesty
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.9.1 | Wallet-UX Loss Through Negligent Design | Wallet interfaces so unforgiving that ordinary user errors result in irrecoverable losses. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 8.9.2 | Irreversible-Transaction Refusal | Refusing refunds, reversals, or corrections in cases of clear fraud, error, or theft, citing chain finality. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 8.9.3 | Smart-Contract Risk Opacity | Offering yield or lending products without disclosing audit status, known vulnerabilities, or possibility of total loss. | Crypto/blockchain |
| 8.9.4 | Recovery Impossibility for Lost Keys | No mechanism for account recovery when keys are lost, with no escalation path. | Crypto/blockchain |
11.6 Hazardous Conditions & PPE · 11 practices
Safety+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.6.1 | PPE Cost Shifting to Workers | Requiring workers to purchase their own respirators, gloves, or protective clothing. | Cleaning, agriculture, pest control, chemical manufacturing |
| 11.6.2 | Hazardous Condition Exposure | Failing to provide protective equipment, shade, ventilation, or safe conditions for high-risk work. | Agriculture, cleaning, construction, mining |
| 11.6.3 | Chemical Exposure Non-Disclosure | Failing to inform workers about specific chemicals, exposure levels, or known health risks. | Chemical manufacturing, oil/gas, cleaning, pest control |
| 11.6.4 | Reproductive-Hazard Concealment | Failing to warn workers of documented reproductive hazards (mutagens, teratogens, endocrine disruptors). | Chemical manufacturing |
| 11.6.5 | Cancer-Cluster Non-Investigation | Declining to investigate or acknowledge elevated cancer rates among workers when internal data suggests facility-related causation. | Chemical manufacturing |
| 11.6.6 | Heat / Fatigue Risk Neglect | Assigning extended outdoor or extreme-temperature shifts without mandated rest or hydration. | Staffing/temp, agriculture, waste management |
| 11.6.7 | Black-Lung / Dust-Exposure Concealment | Suppressing or manipulating dust exposure data to avoid implementing required controls. | Mining |
| 11.6.8 | Fatigue-Risk Normalization | Scheduling that creates chronic fatigue in safety-critical operations without mitigation. | Oil/gas, airlines, transit, shipping |
| 11.6.9 | Pressure to Speed Causing Unsafe Driving | Unrealistic delivery time estimates and late-arrival penalties that incentivize reckless driving. | Food delivery, ride-hailing, shipping |
| 11.6.10 | Production Quotas Compromising Safety | Pick-and-pack or daily-job quotas that force workers to skip breaks or compromise safety. | Logistics, warehousing, pest control, shipping |
| 11.6.11 | Housekeeper Workload | Excessive room counts per shift with piece-rate pay that incentivizes skipping safety protocols. | Hospitality |
11.7 Safety Incident Underreporting · 6 practices
Safety+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.7.1 | OSHA Violation Concealment | Hiding or failing to report workplace injuries, OSHA violations, or hazardous conditions. | Construction, oil/gas |
| 11.7.2 | Injury Reporting Discouragement | Discouraging temp/contractor injury reporting through retaliation or quota penalties. | Staffing/temp, logistics, warehousing |
| 11.7.3 | Contractor-Labor Risk Shifting | Using contracted labor for the most hazardous operations to avoid direct employer liability and long-term health monitoring. | Oil/gas, mining, chemical manufacturing |
| 11.7.4 | Inadequate Worker Insurance | Providing minimal or no accident insurance for workers while on the job. | Food delivery, gig economy |
| 11.7.5 | Detention-Time Unpaid | Failing to compensate drivers for extended wait times at facilities beyond their control. | Shipping/freight |
| 11.7.6 | Equipment Injury Training Absence | Not training workers on safe operation of industrial cleaning, construction, or warehouse equipment. | Cleaning, construction |
14.10 Catastrophic Risk Concealment · 5 practices
Safety+ Responsibility
| § | Practice | Description | Seen in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.10.1 | Tailings Dam Risk Concealment | Understating structural risk of tailings dams to avoid costly upgrades or closure. | Mining |
| 14.10.2 | Accident & Near-Miss Concealment | Suppressing reports of chemical releases, fires, explosions, or near-miss events that could have been catastrophic. | Chemical manufacturing |
| 14.10.3 | Community Notification Failure | Failing to inform surrounding communities about chemical hazards or release events in a timely manner. | Chemical manufacturing |
| 14.10.4 | Battery / Storage Risk Opacity | Underreporting or downplaying battery fire risks or thermal-runaway incidents at storage facilities. | Renewable energy |
| 14.10.5 | Conjunction-Data Opacity | Withholding satellite conjunction data, refusing to coordinate maneuvers, or concealing near-miss events. | Space/aerospace |