The 1-Year Warranty Trick, and the EU Notice That Ends It

Every consumer purchase in the EU comes with a legal guarantee of at least two years. Ask people how long the warranty on their headphones lasts, though, and many will say one year. That is what the box said, what the shop said and what the product page repeated.

Both numbers can be true at the same time. That is the trick.

Two Guarantees, One Number on the Page

The manufacturer’s warranty is a voluntary promise. The brand sets the duration, the terms and the exclusions. One year is common, and some brands offer nothing at all.

The legal guarantee is different. It comes from the seller, applies to every consumer sale automatically and lasts at least two years everywhere in the EU, longer in some countries. It cannot be excluded or shortened in the terms. The one exception is second-hand goods: some countries let the seller and the customer agree on a shorter period, but never less than one year. If a product turns out to have a defect that was there at delivery, the seller has to repair or replace it free of charge, and where that is not possible, reduce the price or refund. For at least the first year the law presumes the defect was there from the start, so the customer does not have to prove it.

For years, many webshops have put “1-year warranty” in the product specifications and left the two years in the terms and conditions. When a device fails in month 15, the customer reads “1 year”, assumes they are out of luck and buys a new one. Nobody said anything false. The page simply showed the smaller number.

What Changes on 27 September 2026

Directive (EU) 2024/825 added a harmonised notice on the legal guarantee to EU consumer law, and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 fixes its design and content. Both apply from 27 September 2026. In Croatia, the amended Consumer Protection Act (Narodne novine 59/2026) brings the same obligation into force on the same day.

• The notice says that every consumer has at least two years of legal guarantee, that the period can be longer under national law, when it typically applies, what the seller has to offer and how to claim.
• A QR code leads to the details on the EU’s Your Europe portal, in the customer’s own language.
• None of it can be edited. In a physical shop it hangs on the wall or at the checkout, printed at A4 or larger. Online it has to be shown in colour and in a prominent place.
• Where a producer offers a durability guarantee for the whole product, at no extra cost and for more than two years, the seller also has to show the EU GARAN label for that product.

There are no new rights here, no reporting and no daily files. One page puts the number the customer was always entitled to next to the number on the box. Sellers who already handle guarantees properly lose nothing. Sellers whose margin depended on customers not knowing will lose exactly that margin.

What We Change on Your Shop

1. Add the official notice. We use the Commission’s files in every language the shop sells in, in colour and unchanged. The regulation does not name one exact spot, so we put it where customers actually look before they order: in the cart or checkout, with a permanent link in the footer and on the returns page.
2. Separate the two guarantees in the product data. “Warranty: 1 year” becomes “Manufacturer’s warranty: 1 year” next to “Legal guarantee: at least 2 years”, or the national period. Two fields, never one.
3. Show the GARAN label where it applies. It is fed from product data (duration, brand, model identifier), shown in colour, and can open on click or hover so it does not crowd the page.
4. Update the returns flow. The returns page, the claim form and the terms treat a fault in month 15 as a legal guarantee claim, not as an expired warranty.
5. Check every template that mentions a warranty. Order confirmations, invoices, PDF datasheets and marketplace feeds often still say “1 year”.
6. Brief the people who answer customers. The notice ends the conversation that starts with “your warranty expired”. The support scripts should end it too.

For most shops this is a small, clearly defined job. For shops with large catalogues and imported product data, the product data is where the time goes.

What It Means for You

If you sell to consumers in the EU, the notice is required from 27 September, whatever your platform. If you want us to check your shop against it, book a 20-minute call. If you do not need us, we will tell you.