This is a joint blog post written together with Carlo Piana with the goal to disband some popular FUD that you lose your warranty if you flash or root your device.
Does rooting your device (e.g. an Android phone) and replacing its operating system with something else void your statutory warranty, if you are a consumer?
In short:
No.
Just the fact that you modified or changed the software of your device, is not a sufficient reason to void your statutory warranty. As long as you have bought the device as a consumer in the European Union.
A bit longer:
Directive 1999/44/CE dictates1 that any object meeting certain criteria (incl. telephones, computers, routers etc.) that is sold to a consumer2 inside the European Union, has to carry a warranty from the seller that the device will meet the quality that you would expect for such a device for a period of 2 years.
A telephone is an example of such a device and is an object that comprises many parts, from the case to the screen to the radio, to a mini-computer, to the battery, to the software that runs it. If any of these parts3 stop working in those 2 years, the seller has to fix or replace them. What is more these repairs should not cost the consumer a single cent — the seller has to cover the expenses (Directive 1999/44/CE, §3). If the seller has any expenses for returning it to the manufacturer, this is not your problem as a consumer.
If your device becomes defective in the first 6 months, it is presumed that the defect was there all along, so you should not need to prove anything.
If your device becomes defective after the first 6 months, but before 2 years run out, you are still covered. The difference is only that if the defect arises now, the seller can claim that the defect was caused by some action that was triggered by non-normal use of the device.4 But in order to avoid needing to repair or replace your device, the seller has to prove that your action caused5 the defect. It is generally recognised by courts that unless there is a sign of abuse of the device, the defect is there because the device was faulty from the beginning. That is just common sense, after all.
So, we finally come to the question of rooting, flashing and changing the software. Unless the seller can prove that modifying the software, rooting your device or flashing it with some other OS or firmware was the cause for the defect, you are still covered for defects during those 2 years. A good test to see if it is the software’s fault is to flash it back with stock firmware/OS and see if the problem persists. If it does, it is not a software-caused problem. If it is not possible to revert it stock software any more, it is also not a software-caused defect. There are very few hardware defects that are caused by software — e.g. overriding the speaker volume above the safe level could blow the speaker.
Many manufacturers of consumer devices write into their warranties a paragraph that by changing the software or “rooting” your device, you void the warranty. You have to understand that in EU we have a “statutory warranty”, which is compulsory that the seller must offer by law (Directive 1999/44/CE, §7.1) and a “voluntary warranty” which the seller or manufacturer can, but does not need to, offer as an additional service to the consumer. Usually the “voluntary warranty” covers a longer period of time or additional accidents not covered by law6. If though the seller, the manufacturer or anyone else offers a “voluntary warranty”, he is bound to it as well!
So, even if, by any chance your “voluntary warranty” got voided, by European law, you should still have the 2 year “compulsory warranty” as it is described in the Directive and which is the topic of this article.
In case the seller refuses your right to repair or replace the device, you can sue him in a civil litigation and can report the incident to the national authority. In many European countries such action does not even require hiring a lawyer and is most of the time ensured by consumers associations.
The warranty under this Directive is only applicable inside the European Union and only if you bought the device as a consumer.
hook out → I hope this encourages many of you to go and flash your devices with something Free! ☺
- EU member states must have by now imported the Directive 1999/44/CE into their national laws. So you should quote also your local law on that topic. ↩
- A consumer is a natural person who acts for their own private purposes and not as a professional. ↩
- Batteries can be exempt of this and usually hold only 6 months warranty. ↩
- E.g. a defect power button could be caused by spreading marmalade in it or hooking it onto a robot that would continuously press the button every second 24/7 — of course that is not normal or intended use. ↩
- Note that correlation is not causation — the defect has to be proven to be caused by your action, not just correlate with it. ↩
- E.g. if a device manufacturer guarantees the phone is water- and shock-proof or a car manufacturer offers 7 years of warranty against rust. ↩
Good article. Thanks for all the useful infos. :)
Many thanks for this useful article. Now I can be sure that my warranty is still intact. Happily using MIUIv4 on my Android phone since 3 months.
Thanks! I was asking myself if I should wait one year for the warranty to run out, before flashing my device with something Free. I took the decision to flash it even if it may void the warranty, so those infos are welcomed. Now let’s do it.
However, concerning Sony, we can read: “Please note that you may void the warranty of your phone and/or any warranty from your operator if you unlock the boot loader. See your phone’s warranty statement for details.” (from http://unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com/)
Since they are using “may”, it’s really a vague declaration.
@Victor:
That satement can only be written in the voluntary warranty that Sony offers you and therefore it can only apply to the voluntary warranty (that you usually get with the phone, but it’s not required from the seller/manufacturer). With that Sony is a lot more free in their interpretation.
But in any case your statutory warranty is provided by law and cannot be limited by a simple agreement or even just a one-side decision from e.g. Sony.
It seems that you are implying that during the first 6 months the seller can’t avoid covering defects even if he is able to prove they were the result of non-normal use:
“The difference is only that if the defect arises [after the first 6 months], the seller can claim that the defect was caused by some action that was triggered by non-normal use of the device.”
This seems strange.
@Nick Demou:
The post is centered around the issue of flashing and rooting and that this counts as normal use. As the situation is complex enough as it is, we haven’t touched upon the issue of non-normal use much.
The presumption in the Directive goes as following:
Herein the “lack of conformity” means that the goods/device does not meet the explicit and implicit specifications, including of course that the device works as normally expected of such a device.
Due to the presumption in §5.3. the burden of proof that the seller has to fulfil in order to overcome it, is in practice very difficult to meet. But of course, it would be foolish to assume that e.g. throwing your device into a tub of boiling marmalade and dropping it on the floor would still count as a “fault that existed at the time of delivery” (unless the device is a tough digital marmalade thermometer).
As for the time after the 6 months, the burden of proof is then on the consumer. But since proving that you did not commit something can be hard to do, courts seems to have adopted the common sense interpretation that if there is no abuse to be seen, it must logically have been a defective from the very beginning. So the burden of proof is quite light on the consumer, thanks to case law.
@hook: many thanks for the thorough explanation.
@Nick Demou:
My pleasure, really.
Now go out there and hack the hell out of your devices! Remember that they’re yours! ☺