In the last issue of This Week in Gaming, we talked about the Federal Trade Commission sending out a warning letter to a few select companies, two of which were Nintendo and Sony. These letters were sent because the FTC found both companies' policies were technically illegal, as voiding a warranty due to peeling a sticker off cannot be grounds for denying a full repair.

Nintendo and Sony might find themselves in hot water soon, in regards to a policy they have. The Federal Trade Commission states that both companies current policy is against a law that was enacted in 1975. And that policy entails warranty voiding. Normally, if you open up a Sony or Nintendo console to repair it, or use third party components, then your warranty is voided. However, this is illegal, and the FTC is cracking down on those don't abide by it, which means both gaming companies have been sent "warning letters", which means they have 30 days to remove such statements from their policy.

Now, a few weeks later, there's been a response, with Nintendo and Sony changing their warranty policies to allow for users to open up the console without voiding the warranty. Nintendo's policy has been changed from

This warranty shall not apply if this product: (a) is used with products not sold or licensed by Nintendo (Including but not limited to, non-licensed game enhancement and copier devices, adapters, software, and power supplies.

To...

This warranty shall not apply if this product has been damaged by products not sold or licensed by Nintendo (Including, but not limited to, adapters, software, and power supplies).

So now, if you open up your console, repair it yourself, or use third party hardware on it, you're fine, however, if these items or your actions cause damage to the system, then the warranty is still considered void, which is compliant with US and Canada law.

Source: GBAtemp Press Inbox

 

[Ryccardo]

So now I'm still under warranty if I decide to do hard mods on my systems?

Yes, as long as whatever fault you're sending it in for wasn't caused or aggravated by your unapproved components (for example, even if you intentionally drilled 10 holes through the motherboard -and manage to keep a straight face-, you could still claim that the hinge is too loose for reasonable operation)

I'm in an European country, does this apply to me?

Not directly, but the basic legal principles have existed for decades in both the USA and the EU/EEA.

Here we have a commercial warranty by the manufacturer at their terms (which may well be 0 days) and a legal warranty by the seller (2 years, only 1 if bought in the name of a company and/or for professional use; after the first 6 months, it's your responsibility to reasonably prove the product was defective, which often gets oversimplified as "batteries and other consumables, only 6 months"; and it may also be satisfied by a replacement or refund), the latter of which never cared about stickers, registration cards or whatever gimmick - just the right to have a product that works as advertised AND reasonably expectable for its class

So, while the legal warranty has the principle of "product failing reasonable expectations" (which includes the right to make non-damaging unofficial mods) I'm not sure if this also applies to the commercial warranty, also seeing how it's a voluntary extra that "does not affect your statutory rights" as they say, while the American equivalent applies explicitly to manufacturer's warranties (which, outside of generous store return policies for maybe a handful of weeks, are often the only ones used by consumers)

 

[Deleted member 420418]

I guess it's safe now to mod your console as long as you don't break it.

 

[Yepi69]

I wonder, if I remove my warranty sticker and open up the PS4 Slim to clean out the dust and change the thermal paste, and then buy one of these, if they're ever going to notice that the sticker was removed.
Because that law DOES apply to the 'States but it doesn't apply to where I live sadly.

 

[FAST6191]

Do check there is not a law like that. Warranties in Europe are a lot stronger than in the US (it is part of the reason for things costing more) and the same sorts of rulings as discussed in the OP happened many years ago in a lot of European countries (technically the US one that gave us part of the reason for this thread was in 1975 but oh well). Portuguese consumer/warranty/intellectual property law is not my forte though and I don't speak the language either to do a basic search.