Apple finally admits to be bound by Dutch warranty
A tiny victory for real globalization. After years of pressure by Dutch consumer watchdog Consumentenbond, American electronics manufacturer Apple has finally adapted its warranty for the Netherlands to make clear that is bound by Dutch law.
Last Monday tech news site Webwereld pointed to the new warranty on Apple’s website, which now states: “If you buy an Apple product, you are covered by the limited Apple warranty of one year, optionally the AppleCare Protection Plan, and the Dutch law.” A handy table shows you what these three warranties cover.
Dutch consumer protection law states that a product must live up to a consumer’s reasonable expectations. A laptop battery for instance can be expected to last longer than a year, but the law does not protect you against capacity reduction, since that is something from which all batteries suffer. According to Internet law blogger Arnoud Engelfriet, a warranty can be both narrower and wider than this rule of conformity—a manufacturer could for instance cover battery capacity reduction in its warranty (this is just an example, Apple for instance does not cover capacity reduction).
Earlier Apple claimed that its warranty provided a better coverage than the law.
In the end of course this does not change anything legally. Dutch consumers have always been protected by the law. It’s good though that customers are made aware more of their rights.
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