Warranty and EU directive 1999/44/EC Query

MaD2ko0l

Hi there,

Just after some information here.

At work, we sell outdoor garden furniture.

A customer of ours ordered a furniture set back in June 2011.

She has now come back to us 2 years later saying that there are some areas of the furniture there some of the material has split/cracked.

The specific set that this customer ordered had a 1 year warranty period and this has now expired.

We have offered a repair solution on the furniture (which we would charged the customer for) but it looks/sounds like the customer is angling to get get a whole new set as the customers set has changed over the years.

Anyway, the customer has come back and said:

I would like to draw your attention to the EU Warranty law which is contained in EU directive 1999/44/EC.

This basically means that everything has a two year guarantee. The relevant wording is:

A two-year guarantee applies for the sale of all consumer goods everywhere in the EU. In some countries, this may be more, and some manufacturers also choose to offer a longer warranty period.'

Where do we stand in this respect? as doing a big of Google ing has brought up rather mixed views but generally seems to say that the SOGA takes precedents over the above mentioned EU Directive.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Martin

jacques_chirac

You are correct, SoGA is the relevant law here. After six months it is for the customer to prove that the item is inherently faulty. If they do this, you will need to offer a (free) repair, (proportionate) refund or replacement.

wealdroam

Firstly that EU Directive isn't UK law.
It is simply a directive telling EU states to implement it's provisions into their national laws.

UK's Sale of Goods Act allows a buyer to seek a remedy from the seller for up to six years.

That directive only requires the EU member state to allow that for two years.

Therefore, SoGA exceeds the requirements of that directive.

Money-Saving-King

MaD2ko0l wrote: »

Anyway, the customer has come back and said:

I would like to draw your attention to the EU Warranty law which is contained in EU directive 1999/44/EC.

This basically means that everything has a two year guarantee. The relevant wording is:

A two-year guarantee applies for the sale of all consumer goods everywhere in the EU. In some countries, this may be more, and some manufacturers also choose to offer a longer warranty period.'

You might want to write back saying "May I draw your attention to the Sale of goods act 1979 to which I have offered you a solution under"!

InsideInsurance

MaD2ko0l wrote: »

Where do we stand in this respect? as doing a big of Google ing has brought up rather mixed views but generally seems to say that the SOGA takes precedents over the above mentioned EU Directive.

The Sales of Goods Act gives someone the right to expect "a reasonable life" from the item that they purchase up to the law of limitations (6 years in England & Wales, 5 in Scotland)

As such it was deemed that the existing UK law already exceed the requirements of a 2 year warranty by the EU and so no additional legislation was passed in the UK in response to the directive.

Obviously the problem with the UK law is the term "reasonable" is rather indistinct and very much open to interpretation.

By the sounds of your post the items failed after 26 months. Would you consider that reasonable? Would you be willing to put it on your website that this is the sort of life expectancy that someone would get if they bought this item from you?

Assuming you dont believe the problems have come from miss use and you dont believe it is a reasonable lifespan then YOU have the option on if you repair, replace or refund to meet their statutory rights. If you refund then you can deduct fair use - generally if you say life should have been 4 years and theirs died after 2 years than you'd give a 50% discount (as a rough method of calculation)