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California legal code 1793.03

Every manufacturer making an express warranty with respect to an electronic or appliance product described in subdivision (h), (i), (j), or (k) of Section 9801 of the Business and Professions Code, with a wholesale price to the retailer of one hundred dollars ($100) or more, shall make available to service and repair facilities sufficient service literature and functional parts to effect the repair of a product for at least seven years after the date a product model or type was manufactured, regardless of whether the seven-year period exceeds the warranty period for the product.

  1. If a product that is out of warranty was purchased more than 7 years ago, but manufacture of this specific type of product ended less than 7 years ago, does the product quality under the above?

For example, Tom bought a TV for $500 in 2015. This particular model of TV was manufactured until 2020. Tom wants replacement parts in 2024. It's been 9 years since he bought the TV but only 4 years since manufacture ended. Does his TV qualify?

  1. If the manufacturer will not repair a particular product under any circumstances, but will replace it with a similar but less expensive item with fewer features, does that qualify as providing adequate repair resources?
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The provision you have quoted requires the manufacturer to provide "service literature and functional parts" to service and repair facilities. It doesn't require them to interact with the customer in any way.

Question 1:

It's not meaningful to ask whether the product qualifies, and Tom's circumstances are not relevant. Regardless of what Tom bought and when, the manufacturer has to provide the literature / parts to the repair facility for 7 years after manufacture of the product type.

Question 2:

Giving the quoted provision its ordinary language meaning, it seems unlikely that providing the repair facility with a different but similar product would be sufficient.

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  • Especially since the different product is actually inferior, not similar.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 19 at 16:22
  • To be specific, in the example scenario, the manufacturer must continue to provide parts and literature until 2027.
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 19 at 16:23
  • Car manufacturers have major problems at the moment getting old electronic parts (due to bad planning, cancelling orders during Covid, and the electronics companies closing down plants producing these very old parts). I wonder how much “literature/parts” can be replaced with cash payments.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Sep 23 at 8:16

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