The new law requires a manufacturer to immediately notify their customers ... ...

Determine whether or not there is an error in the underlined portion of the sentence above. If there is no error, select answer choice "A".
(A) to immediately notify their customers whenever the government is contemplating a forced recall of any of the manufacturer’s products.
(B) ...
(C) ...
(D) ...
(E) ...

*This question is included in Nova Press: Set A - Pronoun Errors

 
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Posted: 12/20/2012 03:38
Hello, can you explain to me why the first "its" is acceptable? I thought it could have referred to the law or the manufacturer. Also, I wondered why the split infinitive at "to immediately notify" is not a grammar issue. Thank you!
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Posted: 12/21/2012 16:22
Quyen, thank you for using the app and posting the question. A law cannot have customers, so "its" is for the manufacturer. There is no hard and fast rule about split infinitives, so "to immediately notify" is not a grammar issue (maybe to some anal retentive grammarians).
 
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The new law requires a manufacturer to immediately notify their customers ... ... 
Posted: 07/01/2013 00:16
I thought that if we don't know the gender of manufacturer we can't use either his or her and therefore use their instead.But the answer is its,can we use it to refer to a human being?
Arcadia
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Posted: 07/01/2013 12:55
Hi Jey,

Although the manufacturer probably consists of both men and women, in the sentence 'its' is referring to the abstract concept of 'the manufacturer,' not to the actual people in the company.

Nova Press
 
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The new law requires a manufacturer to immediately notify their customers ... ... 
Posted: 08/30/2016 13:43
In option D, 'customer' has been introduced by "direct object" but i think it is " indirect object" , right?