Apple’s problems in Italy are only just the beginning if you ask me. It is threatened with heavy fines and a temporary halt to all sales in Italy if it continues its misleading branding, that being only claiming to give a one year guarantee on its products and charging extra for AppleCare, which ‘extends’ your warranty.
It is written into Italian law that any consumer good has a mandatory two year guarantee, hence why Apple is in the situation it’s in, but having done some more research, that two year rule is also, believe it or not, written into EU law as well. What does this mean?
It depends. Some countries, like the UK, don’t take that into consideration and have their own laws which are much more vague (the Sales and Goods Act 1979) but others that are full EU members like France do have the two year rule, like Italy.
While something like AppleCare might work in the US, in the EU it gets complicated. I’m no legal expert by any means, but buy an Apple product in Italy (and I think France), you would have grounds to sue if it didn’t give you the legally mandatory two year guarantee.
Again, it might be more complicated than that, but Apple could potentially have a huge number of roadblocks ahead regarding Apple Care in Europe. It will be very interesting to see what happens, but if you want a longer guarantee (for free), definitely think of buying in a country that operates fully under EU law.
