US Federal Trade Commission Warns Several Companies about Illegal Warranty Policies

TapTechNews July 4th news, you may have seen the kind of sticker that says 'Warranty Void if Removed' pasted on the screw holes of electronic products. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now reminds ASRock, Gigabyte and Zotac that such regulations actually belong to illegal policies.

In addition, AerisHealth, Blueair, MedifyAir and Oransi, the developers of air purifiers, as well as the treadmill company InMovement, have also been warned due to some of their illegal warranty regulations.

The law cited by the FTC is not the 'right to repair' act of each state, but the federal 'Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA)'. This act aims to prevent manufacturers from shirking warranty responsibilities through misleading statements.

The FTC said: 'The Warranty Act prohibits the warrantor of a consumer product valued at more than $5 from conditioning its written warranty terms on the consumer's use of any specific brand, trade name or company name of an article or service (such as a repair service) unless: (1) the warranty terms state that such article or service will be provided to the consumer free of charge, or (2) the warrantor has obtained an exemption from the Commission.'

The FTC also emphasized that they have informed various manufacturers and will conduct a review again in a month. 'The FTC investigators have copied and saved the relevant web content, and we will review your company's written warranties and promotional materials in 30 days.'

TapTechNews found that the FTC also warned the game console departments of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, as well as ASUS, Acer and Hyundai Motors in 2018 for the same problem. Later, Nintendo, Sony and Hyundai Motors updated their relevant policies in less than two months.