warranty

warranty, a promise or guarantee made by a seller or lessor about the characteristics or quality of property, goods, or services. A warranty can be either “express” (i.e., explicit oral or written representations about the quality or identity of the item) or “implied” (i.e., inferred into the contract in accordance with legal requirements), and it can serve to help the purchaser or lessee to secure receipt of conforming goods or provide a remedy for breach of the agreement by the seller. In the event that a warranty is breached, the law provides the injured party with the right to monetary damages, repair of the original good, or replacement with substitute goods. A warranty combines with the laws governing negligence and strict liability to provide protection to consumers as to product safety and contractual integrity.

History

The freedom to contract as desired was a much-protected legal principle under early common law and still is in many ways. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware, was a natural consequence of such a principle, since the parties were entitled to enter into a contract as they chose. However, the freedom was not so absolute as to ignore how fraud or duress would impair such freedom and the resulting contract. In that same vein, failure to satisfy a promise regarding the quality or type of good would also invalidate a contract as failing to meet its warranty, though the warranty was required to be expressly communicated. In the United States it was not until the late 1800s that warranty doctrine was expanded to include positive affirmations or representations about the character or quality of an article sold. An implied warranty of safety for food and drink began in the early 1900s and was then expanded to include consumer products in the 1960s.

Originally, warranties also contained a privity requirement—i.e., any duties or protections imposed were extended only to those directly involved in the sales transaction. To protect the consumer, the privity requirement was slowly reduced and then completely discarded as industrialized society distanced manufacturers and consumers and thus decreased the built-in safeguards of face-to-face contracts. With no privity, manufacturers, sellers, and lessors became responsible to the ultimate consumer under warranty, negligence (conduct that fails to protect others against a reasonable risk of harm), and strict liability (legal responsibility for injury or damages, whether or not the liable party was negligent) theories for the quality and safety of their goods and services. Horizontal privity was also relaxed so as to extend warranty coverage to the buyer’s family, household, and guests and even to bystanders in some states.

During this same period, tort law was also addressing product safety through the theories of negligence and then strict liability. Although there is some convergence in the coverage, warranties are based in contract, not in tort, and are a bit more limited in the amount of damages available as a remedy.

In the United States it was the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) that expanded, standardized, and stabilized sales law. (The Uniform Sales Act of 1906 was the precursor to Article 2 of the UCC, although not as widely adopted.) The official text of the UCC was published in 1952, included both express and implied warranties, and has been adopted in some form by the entire United States. In 1975 the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act ensured that sellers of consumer products clearly state the coverage of warranties. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) provided similar warranty rights and duties for certain buyers and sellers involved in global commerce. CISG was originally passed in 1980 and was adopted by almost 80 countries, including the United States. Its warranty provisions (Articles 35–44) were tailored after the UCC but contained some distinctions.

Social and ethical implications

The primary issue surrounding warranties is to what degree manufacturers, sellers, and lessors should be responsible for the risk of defects and nonconformity in goods that they distribute. The ethical basis for warranties is basic fairness in commercial dealings. Over time, the risk in commercial dealings has shifted from the buyer, under the theory of caveat emptor, to the seller, under warranty theory. Motivated by the recognition of consumers’ vulnerability and dependence on sellers and manufacturers, the consumer-protection movement and the related legislation of the 1960s was the high point in that shift of responsibilities and duties. Since the seller usually has more information, expertise, and control over the item in question, the law has deemed it fair and just to shift the risk. Even when sellers are unaware of certain defects, the risk is still weighted toward them because they are generally more capable of absorbing the costs than the consumer. Warranty laws have been criticized because many can be explicitly waived in the contract and consumers usually lack the bargaining power to push for better warranties.

The three primary theories protecting consumers and imposing greater duties on sellers are contract theory, due-care theory, and strict-liability theory. Each essentially attaches a guarantee to the product intended to promote product safety, quality, and conformity. Although it does not compel a warranty, the due-care theory pushes manufacturers to avoid negligence and to act reasonably to protect consumers in the design, choice of materials, production, control, and packaging of their goods. However, the imprecision of measuring due care and the possibility of unknown dangers render it less than perfect.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

Under the contract theory, warranties have their basis in the duties of sellers to consumers, which are contained implicitly or explicitly in the sales contract. Warranties were designed in part to remedy the imbalance of power between buyers and sellers in commercial transactions and to provide some stability, regularity, and reliability in contractual relationships. However, the imperfection inherent in sales contracts and their guarantees, the continuing unequal bargaining and evaluative power between buyers and sellers (especially where there is a lack of contract privity), and the ability of sellers to waive such warranties raised serious reservations about the adequacy of the contractual theory, especially as to product safety. These consumer-protection concerns contributed to the law of strict liability in tort, which holds manufacturers responsible for almost any injury resulting from defects in their products, even if they used reasonable care in all aspects of the production and distribution process. This presumably motivates the manufacturer to ensure product safety and consumer protection in ways that warranty law cannot.

When dealing in overseas commerce, businesses must address the diversity in languages, standards, and laws among various countries. The CISG tried to provide some guidance for such sales agreements, including the expectation of warranties. Yet the parties must still take the time to address the social and ethical challenges created by these cultural differences between nations (especially since many countries have yet to adopt the CISG).