EU Warranty - Know your rights

[CraigF]

I am seeing loads of things relating to Grey Imports / Imports from Germany etc and people not wanting to touch them due to warranty issues.

Just to clarify folks you get 2 years warranty on all products bought in the EU.
Yes I know most UK companies say its 12 months but they are screwing us rotten.
They will argue it all day with you in the hope you will give up although I believe Tesco is currently on the wrong end of a massive shafting under this law.
Its quite a read but well worth it if you buy anything in the UK / EU.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1677034/Two-year-warranty-EU-law.html

 

[big soft moose]

however virtually all grey imports come from either the far east or the states , and thus don't qualify for the EU waranty , which is why the import companies usually offer a 12 month themselves

 

[digitalfailure]

This is good as we have an imac screen issue on a machine that's a couple of months out of it's 12 month warranty and the apple shop didn't want to know because we didn't want to pay 300 + vat to have the panel replaced.

 

[Dave *]

Unfortunately it isn't that simple, there has been an EU Directive concerning a European wide warranty (EC Directive 1994/44/EC) but unfortunately it hasn't been fully implemented by the UK Parliament, so it isn't law in the UK. Our wonderful MPs decided that the SoGA and Sale and Supply Regs offered adequate protection (technically offering 6 years coverage but virtually impossible to use after the first year).

It is sometimes possible to bamboozle a retailer with the EC Directive, but it isn't a law that can actually be used (mainly because it isn't a law).

This is a TS view of the implementation of the EC Directive (note, no reference to 2 year warranty anywhere).
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/aberdeen/sale_and_supply_of_goods.htm

Full DTI version can be viewed as a .PDF at http://www.secola.org/db/2_12/gb_noteslong.pdf

Which includes the following in the Notes on page 12:

The Two-Year Guarantee Myth (see also Free Guarantees below)

The Regulations do not provide a two-year guarantee. This was a myth that seemed to grow out of a mention in the Directive that Member States had to give their consumers a two-year limitation period.

The limitation periods in the UK are the periods within which this type of legal proceedings must be commenced: namely six years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; and five years from discovery in Scotland. These are, therefore, already longer than the Directive’s two years and are quite different from a guarantee period.

This does mean that throughout the EU there is a requirement that all retailers will honour the four stages of remedy that have been outlined above (repair, replacement, partial refund or full refund) for at least two years. However, as this does not cover fair wear and tear, and since the consumer has to prove the lack of conformity for most of the period, this cannot be called a “guarantee”.