While the existence of legal guarantees is an open question for many Canadians, those in Quebec enjoy a legal warranty hinging on a “common sense” durability clause. If you've ever opened up a laptop for repair, looked on the side of a desktop computer, or looked inside a smart phone, you may have seen a "warranty void if removed" label. Did that stop you from fiddling with the insides, or did you just ignore it and carry on whatever upkeep or improvement you had planned? In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says no. The federal law that oversees consumer product warranties was approved by Congress in 1975 and is known as the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The Act mandates that merchants and producers of consumer goods give consumers clear, comprehensive information about warranty coverage. It has an impact on consumer rights and warrantors' obligations under written warranties. Although the Act makes it simpler for customers to file a lawsuit for warranty breach, it also informally encourages amicable disputes.

Consider the specifics of the extension offered. Unless it covers accidental damage, most other conditions would be covered under a manufacturer’s warranty (where offered) even where no legal warranty exists. Extensions are less useful where legal warranties exist, as the claim window (either time- or durability-based) often outlasts any basic or extended warranty offered with a product. Are Consumers Protected Under Other Laws? Unfortunately, even this isn't exactly clear-cut. A store has the authority to demand proof that the equipment has a manufacturing defect and that your damage to it did not cause it to break.

People have commented on threads that they want to make changes to their components but are afraid to open them up for fear of voiding their warranty. You’re going to have to do something if you do that. In the case of a product, a manufacturer cannot prevent you from modifying or tampering with it in any way that you are legally entitled to do.

Here is the Harvard-style citation to use if you would like to reference this definition of the term void label:

Custom Void Labels Printed to Order

A prohibition on voiding warranty claims for unauthorized repair is included in the MMWA to prevent “tying” conditions. One sale is not supposed to be used to force, or “tie,” consumers into future connected services like repair. However, legal guarantees aren’t perfect. Intuitively, longer claim windows should incentivize manufacturers to create more durable products—they’ll be on the hook when things break, after all. But in practice, things don’t seem to play out that way. Longer guarantees aren’t associated with more durable products, and they don’t seem to incentivize manufacturers to make things more durable. While an ideal law would see repairability and the right to repair codified directly, the legal guarantee still offers protection in many other forms.