Apple gives in, two year warranty for Europe
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The first difference is who is liable. In the first case it is the manufacturer, in the second case the seller of the product.
The second distinction is to when it applies. In the first case Apple will repair anything that breaks during coverage, unless the damage is caused by carelessness. In the second case the "warranty" only applies to what is alredy broken when the seller gives you the device. Examples where this warranty does not hold, is when your hard drive breaks after 8 month or some connections ports stop working after 14 months although they once worked.
In summary the European warranty reduces to a protection for the customer, that the seller doesn't deliver a broken product. So in principle a manufacturer doesn't need to give any warranty at all, but the sellers would not be comfortable with that as in the first 6 months, they have to prove to the customer that the product was working at delivery, which is arguably impossible.
The only case where the European law results in additional coverage for the customer compared to the year apple gives, is when a defect was present at delivery and the customer only noticed it after one year and is able to prove that the defect was there at the beginning. I would like to see someone trying to prove that there was a manufacturing defect causing a connection port to disconnect from the motherboard after 14 month (or did you yank on that cord to much?...).
The fact the liability is on seller shouldn't change the interpretation of "breakage". At least in the Russian consumer protection law, you can go to the seller instead of the manufacturer if your computer breaks, and it's up to the seller what it does with it -- if you don't get it repaired in 45 days, the seller must pay you the full price or send a replacement.
I would like to see someone trying to prove that there was a manufacturing defect causing a connection port to disconnect from the motherboard after 14 month
And that's why in some countries the burden of such proof is on the seller.
This is why I guess the European law is basically about getting a working device in the first place and not about how repair costs are being distributed, which is non-obvious to decide.
Anyway, you don't want to have to go to court if your iPhone fails for a defect after one year and 2 months...
Where I live, what the EU law provides is not called a "warranty"; we use another word. Here, warranties are optional and for the manufacturer; if you build sturdy products, you can have a life-time warranty programme, if you want to. The warranty applies to the manufacturer.
What the EU provides is - in English - a "warranty" with a fixed period of, say, two years that applies to the seller of the product, not the manufacturer.
As sellers, Apple have probably not wanted to comply with the two-year seller warranty, but the other part of the problem is that they have mislead consumers to believe that they were not covered by this protection for the full two years. And even if they are not the seller, the consumers purchasing Apple products would still be covered by the European warranty, albeit through the seller of the product, leaving little if any reason to get AppleCare.
Take [this link](http://www.apple.com/support/products/ipad.html) for the iPad:
Every iPad comes with one year of hardware repair
coverage through its limited warranty and up to 90 days
of complimentary support. AppleCare+ for iPad extends
your coverage to two years from the original purchase
date of your iPad and adds up to two incidents of
accidental damage coverage, each subject to a $49
service fee.
In other words, what is new is probably that Apple have found out that they can no longer dodge European consumer laws without a litany of suits and bad PR, so now they're resorting to this statement.
I've never seen it actually applied to Apple products, but a "reasonable person" as defined by the law would surely expect a $1,799.00AUD Macbook air to last longer than the 12 month warranty covers.
Does anyone know of such cases?
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Interestingly the EU mandated warranty is much less significant than you might think. It seems to cover only manufacturing defects that were present on delivery.
In most EU member states, consumers may only claim for
defects that were present on delivery. There are some
exceptions including Czech Republic and Romania. The
burden to prove that the defect existed on delivery
generally shifts to the consumer after the expiry of a
period of 6 months from date of delivery. Examples of
countries where the burden of proof does not shift
include Czech Republic, Portugal and Romania. Please
contact your local European Consumer Centre for details
of the position in your country.
During the claim period (see above), consumers may
claim, among other things, free repair or replacement
where a product does not correspond to the contract.
Some EU member states, including Finland, Ireland, UK,
Netherlands and Sweden, have a claim period that is
longer than 2 years from date of delivery. Please
contact your local European Consumer Centre for details
of the position in your country.If something in the product that was working ok and as advertised for 1 year suddenly breaks, you're not covered by Apple's warranty, and you're not covered by the consumer protection laws of the EU. If you within the established consumer complaint time period find that something about the product isn't as it should or isn't as advertised, you have a legal right to a full refund providing that you can prove that the problem in question accompanied the product when you received it.
The bottom line: you still just have 1 year of warranty, but now Apple also lets you know that you have another type of consumer right that extends beyond the warranty period.
If any piece of electronics dies within two years that's not expected the die from mere use (e.g. laptop batteries), I immediately return it to the shop I bought it from (not the manufacturer) and I can typically expect some sort of remedy; repair, replacement or a refund. I'm not sure how much of it directly derives from the EU regulations, I sort of expected it to be very similar in other EU countries but I might be wrong.
Incidentally, we also get fourteen days to return anything bought online for a full refund, no questions asked, including shipping costs for for stuff >40 EUR. Naturally it ends up being a zero-sum game, the shops have to recoup those costs some way.
Of course, 6 months is less then 1 year, but I can easily imagine it to be extended further.
Also, IANAL.
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Assuming it costs more to provide this extra level of warrantee service, Apple will just have to raise the price even more for EU customers than they already have. There's no net benefit to consumers. In fact, consumers are probably on average worse off for the existence of this law and laws like it. There is a positive ROI only for the very brief period before the new policy get priced in.
Those damn socialists with their securities and trying to not let companies roam completely freely, disregarding laws at will. They should know better than to weaken our glorious leader capitalism and deserve to pay dearly for it! It's the customer's own fault for actually trying to secure some rights, so the companies are perfectly right in arbitrarily raising prices, and I request these companies to raise the prices even further, to give them Europeans a better taste of what power the modern supra-national company holds!
It is a pity though. The richest company in the world, that does not know what to do with all its riches, has to subject itself to the same laws everyone else has to. Better raise the prices, because by no means have they gained profit from misleading customer into purchasing additional services, right? "What, we have to abide to the law? Well, that will lower our profit margins, better raise prices so we can make the same profit, only this time without actually evading legislation."
The alternative is to allow consumers the choice to buy an extended warranty or not.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoQWiQYB3NR5dDh...