By Ray Biagini

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, federal, state and local governments, as well as private companies, invested billions of dollars to research, purchase and implement security technologies that might help prevent future attacks. They discovered that radio frequency identification could help improve public health and safety in a number of ways, including protecting pharmaceutical supply chains, providing access control at airports and nuclear power plants, targeting product recalls for contaminated food or faulty aircraft parts, and securing shipping containers.

But companies selling anti-terror technologies were concerned about tort liability. After the terrorist attacks, lawsuits were filed against the airports, port facilities, security companies, building owners and airlines for business interruption, economic loss and wrongful death. Why risk your entire company to sell a $1,000 radiation detector? The federal government understood that it needed the private sector to invest in anti-terror solutions, but it also knew that the return on investment was limited by catastrophic litigation risk.


On Nov. 25, 2002, within the Homeland Security Act, Congress enacted the SAFETY (Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technology) Act, to eliminate or significantly limit tort liability for companies whose anti-terror products or services fail to prevent, interdict or mitigate a terrorist act.