Main amendments to the legal guarantee of conformity and commercial guarantees in consumer sales contracts
On 1 January 2022, the emergency ordinance transposing the European directive regulating consumer guarantees when concluding contracts for the sale of goods entered into force.
The new legislative framework introduces the following changes concerning the legal guarantee of conformity and commercial guarantees:
- Introduces the consumer’s right to opt for a specific corrective measure within 30 days of delivery.
- Introduces a guarantee for goods with digital elements. Under the new legal provisions, when purchasing a product with digital elements: if digital content and/or digital services are provided for a certain period, but less than 5 years (i) for products with an average duration of use of up to 5 years, consumers benefit from a legal guarantee of 2 years from the date of delivery; (ii) for products with an average duration of use of more than 5 years, consumers benefit from a legal guarantee of 5 years from the date of delivery. Furthermore, where digital content and/or services are provided for longer than 5 years, consumers benefit from a legal guarantee equal to the contractual period established for provision of the digital elements.
- Extends the duration of the legal presumption of non-conformity to 1 year and establishes a total period of the non-conformity guarantee of 2 years, except for second-hand products where a guarantee period of at least one year from the date of delivery of the product can be established.
- Establishes situations where consumers may request termination of the contract and/or a price reduction.
- Introduces the obligation (i) to provide consumers with a guarantee certificate at the latest at the time of delivery of goods, and (ii) to include in the commercial guarantee certificate a clear delimitation of consumers’ rights regarding the legal guarantee of conformity, the name and address of the guarantor, the conditions under which the commercial guarantee is granted, the products to which the commercial guarantee relates, the procedure to be followed by the consumer to enforce the commercial guarantee.
- Removes the obligation for consumers to notify non-conformity within 2 months of identifying it. This gives consumers the right to notify the seller of non-conformity at any time within the legal guarantee period.
- Explicitly regulates the durability guarantee offered by the manufacturer. Under the new legal provisions, the durability guarantee is the guarantee by which the manufacturer undertakes for a certain period to repair or replace products that fail to maintain their required functions and performance during normal use. Also, a manufacturer that offers such a guarantee to consumers is directly liable to the consumer for replacement or repair of the product – and the conditions of the legal guarantee of conformity are applicable in this case as regards how repair and replacement are carried out.
Source:
Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the sale of goods, amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC, and repealing Directive 1999/44/EC; Governmental Emergency Ordinance no. 140/2021 on certain aspects of contracts concerning the sale of goods.