Microsoft, Sony, and other companies still use illegal warranty-void-if-removed stickers

[Batu69]

One of the ways manufacturers coerce users not to modify or even open hardware they’ve purchased is through warranty-void-if-removed stickers. These stickers are common on electronics equipment — Microsoft uses them on the Xbox One, Sony has them on the PS4, and you’ve probably owned a phone that had at least one somewhere.

 

These stickers are almost certainly illegal, as Motherboard points out in relation to the new Xbox One S. The problem with the stickers is that they run afoul of the FCC’s rules on tying repair services to specific products. This issue is also probably why Apple agreed to change its practices regarding iPhones, when devices that had been repaired by third-party shops would then suddenly fail when upgraded to Apple’s latest operating system.

 

“The stickers could be deceptive by implying consumers can’t use parts the warrantor doesn’t pre-approve, which violates the anti-tying provisions of MMWA,” FTC spokesperson Frank Dorman told Vice.

 

This practice isn’t remotely unique to Microsoft. The PS4 does the same thing.

Companies don’t like to talk about these policies, most likely because they don’t want to admit they’ve been doing something illegal for decades. Laws like the 1975 Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act were passed to prevent companies from tying customers to expensive repair contracts, or requiring customers to use only approved hardware installed by “authorized” resellers. The common example for this is with cars, where it’s illegal for a manufacturer to try and force you to only install their own parts.

 

There are, of course, limits to these laws. If you destroy your transmission or engine while servicing them, the manufacturer is under no obligation to repair the vehicle. What manufacturers aren’t allowed to do is refuse to honor a warranty on your engine just because you installed a different set of speakers or an aftermarket radio. The obligation is on the manufacturer to demonstrate that your third-party repairs or modifications caused the failure, not the other way around.

 

Modern electronics are tightly integrated, but the concept is the same. Microsoft isn’t allowed to prevent you from opening your own hardware, and neither is any other manufacturer. So why do they?

 

The answer is simple: Because they know you won’t do anything about it. It’s a nifty example of how companies get away with doing illegal things — the cost of taking them to court and forcing them to comply with the law is higher than the value of the product. A car is expensive enough to repair that companies can’t get away with telling you to pony up thousands of dollars for their own parts and repair shops. On the other hand, a smartphone can cost $500 to $700, but that doesn’t begin to cover the cost of a lawyer to litigate the issue, and Apple, Microsoft, and other companies know it.

 

In Microsoft’s case, its warranty states that it ceases to apply if the Xbox One is “opened, modified, or tampered with.” It’s flatly illegal. But until someone brings a case against the company and litigates it out, electronics companies will continue to put these stickers on their products, and consumers will continue to believe the manufacturers are legally allowed to do.

 

The situation is also playing out in new ways thanks to the advent of DRM. Tractor manufacturer John Deere and the Library of Congress have both resisted any attempt to require manufacturers to share data on firmware or other DRM’d blocks of information, because it could conceivably allow for piracy or alter the function of the vehicle. John Deere has gone so far as to claim that by purchasing a tractor, farmers gain “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.” It’s the concept of software licensing, except applied to hardware, and the fact that it’s illegal doesn’t seem to concern anyone much.

 

Article source

[vissha]

Microsoft Breaking Warranty Act with Tamper-Resistant Stickers on New Devices

 

 

Warranty-void-if-removed sticker spotted on the Xbox One S

 

Quote

If you’ve purchased new electronics in the last decade, you've probably notice that most of them come with tamper-resistant stickers that are supposed to alert the manufacturer should you make any “unauthorized” modifications to the product.

 

What most of the buyers don’t know is that these warranty-void-if-removed stickers are actually illegal according to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975, but this still isn’t stopping some manufacturers from using them anyway.

 

Case in point is Microsoft, the Redmond-based software giant that is still shipping new devices with the aforementioned sticker although it’s very clear that they’re illegal and they shouldn’t block users from any modifications that do not affect the functioning of the device.

 

The recently-launched Xbox One S has such a sticker and, as reported by Vice, Microsoft placed it on a clip that keeps the case in place in order to be sure that once buyers attempt to open the device, its engineers would know this and refuse honoring the warranty (see the photo attached to article, courtesy of iFixit following their latest teardown).

 

Specifically, by placing such a sticker on the device, Microsoft forbids buyers not only not to make any internal changes to the device, but also to repair it only in its own service centers. If unauthorized repairs are performed, the warranty is automatically lost, Microsoft warns, and the documentation clearly refers to as forbidden any attempt to “open, modify or tamper with” or repairs “made by anyone other than Microsoft.”

 

The FTC, on the other hand, clearly states that these stickers is illegal and adds that customers can make modifications to their purchased products if they don’t break anything. And in the case of the Xbox console, this is quite a common thing, as many users update their hard-disks, but believe they lose their warranties because of opening the device. In reality, however, their warranty still exists because a new hard drive doesn’t affect the console in any way.

 

“The stickers could be deceptive by implying consumers can’t use parts the warrantor doesn’t pre-approve, which violates the anti-tying provisions of MMWA,” Frank Dorman, a spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission, was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.

 

Third-party repairs won’t void your warranty

 

And what’s more, if the manufacturer refuses to honor the warranty should any modifications were made to devices, they must prove that these modifications affected the functioning of the product. Customers have no obligation in this case, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act states.

 

Here’s an excerpt from the law which explains that the warranty is void only if the manufacturer can prove that third-party modifications broke down the device:

 

“The performance of the duties under subsection (a) shall not be required of the warrantor if he can show that the defect, malfunction, or failure of any warranted consumer product to conform with a written warranty, was caused by damage (not resulting from defect or malfunction) while in the possession of the consumer, or unreasonable use (including failure to provide reasonable and necessary maintenance).”

 

Microsoft hasn’t yet offered a statement on why it is still using warranty-void-if-removed stickers despite the fact they’re already flagged as illegal, but manufacturers will most likely continue to put them on their devices as many customers aren’t aware of when their warranty is void and when it is not.

 

Source

[SnakeMasteR]

[DKT27]

Threads merged.

 

Did not know it was not legal. Wonder what laws in my country are. I hate it when I cannot open things like routers and such.