A question about European Law regarding Warranties

derekdooom

Hi guys

I'm sure this comes up now and again.

I purchased a Google Nexus 7 at PC World around 13 months ago and it was the worst purchase I've ever made - I've had two defective screens in one year that the manufacturer refused to repair for less than almost the full cost of the device.

Last night I was downloading some spotify playlists onto the device and it froze up. I restarted it and it got stuck in a 'boot loop'. After several attempts to force a restart the device would not turn on at all. It is charged but the screen won't display anything. It is also recognised on my PC but only as an 'APX device' which -based on my understanding - means that the device's 'bootloader' which has to run before the main Android operating system can, is corrupted in some way.

Anyway, I contacted Asus about this and they advised that because it was outside of the 1 year manufacturer's warranty that I would be liable for costs from "inspection", "Logistics", "labour" and "parts" (it has to be sent to the Netherlands for repair I think).

I've often heard people reference a 2 year EU minimum warranty on consumer goods but my experiences has always been that manufacturers dismiss this. Here is a link:

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/protection_of_consumers/l32022_en.htm

I have also read about a legal precedent involving Apple being required to conform with the EU statutory warranty.

http://www.techcentral.ie/eu-law-forces-apple-two-year-warranty/

EU law apparently covers flaws present upon delivery but not those that develop afterwards if this article is anything to go by.

In my case my hunch is that the flaw with my device is in the software, and although this has been regularly updated since I took receipt of it these updates have come directly from the manufacturer and have nothing to do with wear and tear or user error, which puts it in a kind of grey area.

I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this? Or has had any experience of trying to get a manufacturer to honour the EU statutory warranty period?

Thanks

Shane-KornSpace

You may have to take them to the small claims court for it. A bit of a pain, but if Asus aren't budging, its what you'll have to do, I'm sure some other posters will have some more insight though.
Unfortunate, really. My Nexus is 11 months old and never had an issue :-\

slimjimmc

You have misinterpeted the EU Directive.
There is no EU law which states a manufacturer has to provide a minimum 2-year guarantee, or any guarantee for that matter.
However if a manufacturer does provide a guarantee (of whatever duration) then it must honour that guarantee in accordance with the T&Cs of the guarantee. Basically, there's no point in chasing ASUS once their 1 year manufacturer's guarantee has expired as they have met their commitments.

What you do have are statutory consumer rights under Irish law which apply between you and the seller (PC World, not the manufacturer). This entitles you to seek a repair, replacement or a refund from PC World.

You should deal directly with PC World. They'll probably offer to repair it first which is fine but any repair they attempt must be permanent so if the problem recurs you have a stronger case for a replacement or refund. The replacement can be an alternative device of equivalent (or higher) spec or value.

If you and PC World can't agree a satisfactory outcome you can take the case to the Small Claims Court once you have exhausted the retailer's dispute resolution procedures.

Bepolite

It's discussed here at length just do a search. Basically a directive is transposed into national law and not binding as worded.

If you think Ireland has failed to implement the directive you would have to go to the ECJ, which will be prohibitively expensive, and pointless as Irish National law has the directive fully implemented.

dudara

Did you deal with PC World at all when the issues first started appearing?

derekdooom

dudara wrote: »

Did you deal with PC World at all when the issues first started appearing?

The problem only occurred last night and it didn't really occur to me to try PC world. I presume that after 6 or 12 months they refer you to the manufacturer anyway?

derekdooom

Shane-KornSpace wrote: »

You may have to take them to the small claims court for it. A bit of a pain, but if Asus aren't budging, its what you'll have to do, I'm sure some other posters will have some more insight though.
Unfortunate, really. My Nexus is 11 months old and never had an issue :-\

Yeah, a few of my friends have them and have had no trouble at all, my one's been out of action for most of the time that I've had it and I've spent about €120 repairing it so far. I'm pretty close to just throwing it into the canal

dudara

derekdooom wrote: »

The problem only occurred last night and it didn't really occur to me to try PC world. I presume that after 6 or 12 months they refer you to the manufacturer anyway?

But you mention two defective screens? Anyway, your contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer, and that is where I'd start

Del2005

Bepolite wrote: »

It's discussed here at length just do a search. Basically a directive is transposed into national law and not binding as worded.

If you think Ireland has failed to implement the directive you would have to go to the ECJ, which will be prohibitively expensive, and pointless as Irish National law has the directive fully implemented.

I thought the reason we didn't implement the 2 year EU directive was because our consumer law was better as we have up to 7 years to make a claim under the sale of goods and supply of services act, or however long the statute of limitations is, to make a claim depending on price paid and the designed life of the product.

Bepolite

Del2005 wrote: »

I thought the reason we didn't implement the 2 year EU directive was because our consumer law was better as we have up to 7 years to make a claim under the sale of goods and supply of services act, or however long the statute of limitations is, to make a claim depending on price paid and the designed life of the product.

The directive calls for a 2 year limitation period as a minimum, we have six. The remainder of the directive is brought in under SI 11/2003. There's some argument that the directive required a two year blanket warranty on all goods which would simply be unworkable. It would mean a bag of salad would have to last two years.

If one wanted to challenge Ireland's implementation it would have to go as a preliminary reference which is going to get very expensive very quickly.