Question

Discuss the principal provisions of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and distinguish between a full and a limited warranty.

Answer 1

The United States Federal law viz. Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act was passed in the year 1975 and governs and regulates the warranties on the products sold in the USA. It was sponsored by Senator W.G. Magnuson (Washington) and J. E. Moss (California), both of whom were Democrats. Another Senator F. Moss (Utah) also co-sponsored this Act. While the Act does not makes it mandatory for a product to be sold along with a warranty, it does have regulations for it when a product is sold along with a warranty. The Act was implemented as manufacturers and sellers were found to misuse the disclaimers and express warranties extensively. Hence, the main purpose of the Act was to ensure that the warranties are understood well, and are also enforceable. The Act also gave more teeth to the Federal Trade Commission and helped it protect consumer rights better.

Principal Provisions Of The Magnuson-Moss Act

According to the Act, there are certain requirements that all warranties should meet. These requirements also synergize with the Federal Trade Commission, which has certain other rules and requirements related to warranties.

Rules to be met- The sellers/manufacturers and/or warrantors should meet the three important requirements given below.

1. A warrantor should specifically point out whether a warranty is Full or Limited.
2. The content or certain information related to a warranty should be provided by the warrantor to the consumer in an easy-to-read, clear and single document. Some of the content matter includes the address and name of the warranty, parts/products covered, expectations or duties for the customers to bear/follow, bearing of expenses, legal remedies consumers may use and other information.
3. The warranty should be provided along with the product at the time of sale itself so that the consumer is fully aware of the rights and obligations.
4. The warrantor, manufacturer or anybody else has no right to modify, alter or disclaim an implied warranty (a guarantee that the product will work as a claim) once it has been provided to the customer. Therefore, consumers always have a basic and certain level of protection (applied automatically after a purchase happens) while buying all kinds of consumer goods even when an express warranty (a clearly stated, written or verbal warranty form) is absent for a product.

Tie-in sales prohibited- The Act prohibits all kinds of tie-in sales, which means that a consumer is not required to purchase any other service or item, to be eligible for a warranty and its benefits.

No deceptive terms- all kinds of misleading and deceptive terms in a warranty are prohibited by the Act.

Damage claims- when a consumer finds that the warranty is breached. He/she can sue the manufacturer, seller or warrantor in a State or Federal court depending on his her own choice. Under Federal jurisdiction, consumers can claim damages worth a minimum amount of $ 50,000. The cases that involve several consumers can also be litigated in a Federal court as a kind of “class action suit”, according to the Magnuson Moss Act.

Difference between a Full Warranty and a Limited Warranty

Full Warranty- According to the Magnuson-Moss Act, a full warranty is a warranty that meets all the Federal requirements or minimum standards for it that the Act spells. Therefore, according to the Act, a Full guarantee is one that meets the below-given terms and conditions.

a. The coverage of the warranty should not be limited to the first purchases only but should be available to everyone who owns a product (until the warranty period is not over).

b.There is no duration or limit of the implied warranties.

c.The service of the warranty should be provided at no extra cost. The consumer should not spend anything towards removing/reinstalling or returning the product as well.

d.When the warrantor is not able to repair the product after a certain/reasonable number of attempts, the consumer should get a choice to get a full refund or replacement for the product.

e.Apart from notifying that a service is required, the consumer should not be liable for performing any other duty (as a precondition) for getting the service.

Limited Warranty- As the name suggests, the scope of a limited warranty is restricted to a given number of parts and/or certain kinds of defects or other specific conditions. For instance, a limited warranty may cover the parts but not the labor costs spent on fixing the issue. In other cases, a limited warranty may say that the fixing costs are borne by both seller/manufacturer and the customer in a predefined ratio.