Two-year warranty (EU law)

ipoppy said:

.... I call it horse ****** because according to this I got 2 months to tell about the problem and they should fix it no matter when as long as that happened during first 2 years......

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as your link says

However, the likelihood of getting such a refund is dramatically reduced after just six months....

...After six months, the burden of proof switches to the buyer and it is they who must then show a fault is due to some inherent problem, something that can be almost impossible in all but the most straightforward cases....

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so yeah, you get 2 years, but as your link says, after 6 months it's up to you to prove that the problem existed when the product was delivered.

The EU warranty is only for the condition of the product when it was delivered. Generally the EU warranty doesn't cover products just because they stop working during that 2 year period.

Never mind the EU law you should be covered by the UK sales of goods act. Contact your local trading standards.

*assumes it was purchased in the UK and not the Apple.com/uk

Ok rant time- There is no two year EU warranty.

A directive was introduced in 1999ish that stated that effectively said where a consumer purchased a product and that product was delivered with a defect a consumer cannot be prevented from taking legal action for two years. It is a bit like a statute of limitation- the directive says if my MacBook arrives in two pieces I am allowed to sit on my arse for 23 months and 29 days before I file court papers.

Now many will ask how is this useful? Well it comes down to people not understanding what defective at the time of purchase means. It does not mean if my MacBook breaks after a week I am stuffed. Let me explain by example- lets say my MacBook is delivered to me with a weak cable inside. I can't see that cable and have no idea there is a problem. 18 months later the cable suddenly breaks and my MacBook stops working, 18 months is shorter than you would expect a cable to last. The defect was the faulty cable that was there from the start, it breaking and my MacBook stopping working is simply the manifestation of the defect. I can go to court (I'm inside the two year window) and sue Apple.

However if I buy a Biro for 50p and 18 months later it stops working I'm unlikely to be able to sue, even though I am in the two year window. What is the defect? 18 months for a 50p Biro is pretty good.

Another thing people fuss about is the "burden of proof". Reality is if you had AppleCare and Apple refused to do anything you'd have to go to court and the burden of proof would be on you. The directive grants consumer an initial 6 months presumption that they wouldn't ordinarily have. Also remember in the UK the standard of proof in civil cases is on balance of probabilities- 51% will do. Plus low value proceedings go to small claims court- which is quite simple and informal. I've never had to go that far, but people I know who have actually quite enjoyed it. Costs very little. People should not be afraid to stand up for themselves!

Final point - when people say "I'll use the Sale of Goods Act 1979 instead" I die a little. EU directives are not directly applicable in EU countries. A directive is an instruction to governments to implement legislation to that effect. Most of that directives' contents were already in the Sale of Goods Act (s.11-14 particularly). The government just added a few bits (s.48A-C?). The two year limitation that EU directive mandated was already six years in the UK- but as you can see from my examples above that does not mean everything should last six years here.


(References, dates etc may be a bit off- done from memory on the train!)