“These warning letters put companies on notice that restricting consumers’ right to repair violates the law,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The Commission will continue our efforts to protect consumers’ right to repair and independent dealers’ right to compete.”
In each of the letters, the FTC lists the specific warranty statement that caused the agency to become “concerned,” followed by a warning that violating the Warranty and FTC Acts could lead to legal ramifications.
Here are links to each of the three letters…
While the letter are similar, they’re not exactly the same. For example, the FTC’s letter to Zotac calls out its warranty policy that states, “Warranty claims will be void if the user: … [t]ampers, defaces, or removes any stickers indicating void warranty if broken,” adding that it would be concerned if Zotac denied warranty coverage based on those provisions.
In its letter to ASRock, however, the FTC went a little bit further and said that in addition to concerns over its warranty sticker policy, the agency “would be concerned about any additional representations made by ASRock that state or imply that its warranty coverage requires a consumer to purchase an article or service identified by ASRock or another brand, trade or corporate name.”