Legal and commercial guarantees study

The legal and commercial guarantees market study examines to what extent sellers are aware of, and comply with, the requirements of relevant EU and national legislation. It looks at the way in which legal and commercial guarantees are communicated to consumers, at how consumers perceive them, and at what impact this has on purchasing decisions. The study also assesses the extent to which consumers are aware and make use of their rights, and sheds light on the prevalence and nature of problems that consumers encounter when seeking redress.

The study reveals that:

Across the EU28, 50% of consumers consider that, in general, sellers in their country inform consumers about the legal guarantee period for products. Among in-store mystery shoppers 42% found information displayed with the product and/or were spontaneously informed by a sales person that the legal guarantee is free of charge and for a minimum period of two years.

Across all EU countries, consumers had a good understanding of the legal guarantee coverage; between 72% of consumers in Cyprus and 97% in Slovenia answered that the legal guarantee covers breakdown or failure to operate because of a material or manufacturing fault.  Self-reported awareness of the legal guarantee was 67% at EU level; however, only about half as many consumers (35%) were aware of the legal guarantee period in their country (2 years except for the longer periods in the UK and Sweden).

When asked whether, in general, information provided by sellers about the legal guarantee was clear, transparent and not misleading, only 50% of consumers in the EU agreed with this proposition. 

A considerable proportion of sellers did not take the purchase date into account when asking consumers to prove that the good was defective or non-conforming, and provided consumers with incorrect information about the burden of proof (or could not provide any information at all). For problems that had occurred within the first six months after purchasing a product, 15% of consumers reported having been asked by the seller to prove that the problem was not due to their own fault, while the corresponding figure for problems that had occurred after six months which was virtually the same (16%). The study finds that the rules on burden of proof during the legal guarantee period are poorly understood (by consumers and traders alike) and poorly applied.

Across the EU, 38% of consumers had experienced a problem with a product for which they felt they had a genuine cause for complaining; equal shares reported that this problem had occurred within the first six months, between 6 and 12 months or between one and two years after purchasing the product.

As regards the execution of consumer guarantee rights, three main barriers were identified: lack of awareness – for 17% of problems for which no action was taken, consumers had not taken action because they thought the legal guarantee had expired; complex/long process to execute rights – for 30% of problems for which no action was taken, consumers thought it was unlikely that the problem would have been resolved (other reasons mentioned were that the process would take too long - 16%, or that the procedure to file a complaint was not known - 6%); burden of proof – for 14% of problems, consumers had not taken any action because they had to prove that the problem was not caused by them.

Of all the problems for which consumers had only contacted the seller, 37% resulted in a free repair of the product, 26% in a free replacement and 12% in a full or partial refund. On average, 15% of replacements, repairs and refunds happened within one day (the figure was the highest for clothing and footwear at 35%).

Related documents

• Executive summary (pdf)
• Final report (pdf)
• Final report - annex (pdf)
• Country factsheets (zipfile)