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posted by chromas on Saturday October 13 2018, @10:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the an-industry-group-of-notorious-for-lobbying-to-protect-is-repair-monopolies dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

When you buy a game console, smartphone, dryer, vacuum cleaner, or any number of other complicated electronics, there’s usually a sticker or a piece of paperwork telling you that trying to repair the device yourself will void your warranty. That’s illegal under the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Companies offering a warranty on their goods aren’t allowed to void that warranty if the user attempts to repair it themself, but that doesn’t stop the company from scaring customers into thinking it’s true.

It’s such a huge problem that US PIRG—a non-profit that uses grassroots methods to advocate for political change—found that 90 percent of manufacturers it contacted claimed that a third party repair would void its warranty [pdf]. PIRG researched the warranty information of 50 companies in the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM)—an industry group of notorious for lobbying to protect is repair monopolies [sic]—and found that 45 of them claimed independent repair would void their warranty.

Source: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9k7mby/45-out-of-50-electronics-companies-illegally-void-warranties-after-independent-repair-sting-operation-finds


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 14 2018, @12:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 14 2018, @12:58AM (#748460)

    Anything that keeps him out of the studio is fine by me.