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It's similar, though not as strong, here in the UK. Basically warranties have to carry a statement that "your statutory rights are not affected", which means that if there's a conflict between what the manufacturer says he'll give you in his terms, and what the law says he should give you, the law wins, even if you apparently accepted his terms by buying the product.
That seems to me to be entirely sensible. Too many times in the past manufacturers tried to avoid responsibility by putting onerous terms into contracts they knew no normal consumer would ever read.
If a manufacturer sells something that any reasonable person would expect to last 5 years (an iLiad for example), how is it unfair to the manufacturer for me to insist that it actually does if used properly?
As in Norway, common sense prevails. Here you have a right to make a claim through the courts within 7 years, even if the warranty is only 1 year, BUT you have to show the court that the failure was outside what you'd reasonably expect for the product in question. So a claim for a paper plate that only lasted one meal would fail, while one for a washing machine that failed after 15 months would probably succeed. It's all about being "fit for purpose".
As is true across the world I believe, the laws that apply are those of the country in which the product was sold, not those of the country in which it's used (reasonable, as the manufacturer has control of the first but not the second), so the point about buying in France and taking it back to Norway is mute. If you wanted to make a legal claim, you'd have to do it in France.
On the other hand, in the UK, it's the retailer that's responsible for meeting my rights, not the manufacturer. Again, fair enough as the retailer operates in my country, while the manufacturer may not. So if my iLiad fails and Irex won't fix it, I can claim on Libresco. This is a point many consumers fail to understand and which therefore allows the retailers to get away with murder. Many big stores will try to fob you off with "contact the manufacturer for support after 28 days", which is illegal. PC World tried that with me with a TomTom that didn't do what was claimed for it. It was 6 months old, and TomTom (quite legally) wouldn't refund it as I didn't buy it from them, while (illegally) PC World wouldn't as I hadn't returned it within 28 days. Needless to say I won, but they'd have got away with it with most consumers I think.
I've thought for a long time that consumer law in the States lags a long way behind Europe. It certainly explains the wild, or at least heavily overstated, claims we often see in American infomercials. "Buyer beware" is not a reasonable way for manufacturers and retailers to behave in this day and age.
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