Retailers, distributors and PC manufacturers are being warned that they should not deny customers their right to have their device repaired for seemingly innocuous reasons such as a missing warranty sticker on the product.

In a move that will potentially have a significant impact for Australians, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has told ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac – three companies which also have operations in Oz – that “warranty void if removed” stickers are illegal.

The FTC has issued letters to each of them to ask that them to change warranty conditions that aren’t compliant with a customer’s right to have their product fixed.

“Staff would be concerned if Gigabyte, in practice, denied warranty coverage based on the warranty provisions quoted above or any similar provision,” said one of the letters, reported The Verge.

The letter comes at a time when there are specific conditions in the manufacturers’ warranty conditions that contradict those rules which the FTC wants to reinforce. 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.”

Gigabyte’s warranty condition reads: “If the manufacturing sticker inside the product was removed or damaged, it would no longer be covered by the warranty.”

The FTC in its letter added that it was going to follow up on whether its directives were followed within the next month. “FTC investigators have copied and preserved the online pages in question, and we plan to review your company’s written warranty and promotional materials after 30 days.”

Here in Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has its own rules to protect consumers. As such, businesses must not tell consumers to take the problem to the manufacturer or importer; when a product has a major problem, consumers can choose between a refund or replacement; and also businesses must fix a minor problem with a product or service by at least giving a free repair.