New EU law means 2yr warrantee?

nemo183

Whilst listening to the radio the other day, I heard an EU commissioner say that any consumer product purchased in the EU now, by law, automatically carries a 2 year warrantee.

Since it still seems standard for most UK companies to advertise a one year warrantee, does anyone know what the actual position is?

Altarf

Most UK companies offer a one year guarantee, which is over and above your statutory rights.

The sale of goods and guarantees Directive 1999/44/EC (which was what the EU commissioner was referring to) set a minimum level of consumer rights across the EU. The directive was implemented in UK legislation in Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002, which updated the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

Under UK law you have up to 6 years to make a claim for a fault that was present at the time of sale, which is better than the EU minimum of 2 years.

The main change that the directive caused was when a consumer returns faulty goods in the first six months from the date of the sale the consumer does not have to prove the goods were faulty at the time of the sale, it is assumed that they were. If the retailer does not agree, it is for him to prove that the goods were satisfactory at the time of sale.

The problem is that retailers (either by accident or design) misunderstand the difference between a guarantee and statutory rights, and don't know what a consumers statutory rights are.

For more info - http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/saleandsupply.htm#sga