By Sean Hollister , a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CN

The FTC is investigating PC manufacturers who scare you away from your right to repair

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2024-07-04 08:00:04

By Sean Hollister , a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Ever seen one of those “warranty void if removed” stickers covering the screw holes on a gadget? Today, the FTC is reminding ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac that they’re illegal.

In fact, the FTC sent letters to ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac that suggest the FTC’s concerns aren’t just skin sticker-deep. Each letter tells the manufacturer to change its warranty and review its customer support practices to make sure they aren’t illegally threatening your warranty.

“Staff would be concerned if GIGABYTE, in practice, denied warranty coverage based on the warranty provisions quoted above or any similar provision,” reads part of one of the letters.

As of today, each of these companies’ warranties does include such a threat. The very first line in ASRock’s warranty reads, “Manufacturer’s warranty will be null and void if products are modified, damaged or otherwise tampered with, for example, the outer case is opened or additional optional parts/components are installed/removed.”