Did You Know?
Many consumer devices and appliances come with stickers over joints and seams which state “warranty void if removed.” While these warnings against unauthorized tampering may seem threatening to many, most cannot actually be enforced under U.S. federal law. This emanates from the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which prohibits companies from putting “tie-in sales” provisions in their warranties. “Tie-in sales” require the use of a certain product or service to utilize the warranty; for example, the warranty on a flashlight cannot be voided because the consumer uses Duracell batteries instead of Energizer. As the law applies to modern technology, a company cannot require exclusive use of authorized repairmen or repairment parts in the fixing of their product, so long as those repairs are not actually what broke the product. All that notwithstanding, companies continue to put these warnings on their products because most people do not realize they are unenforceable.