The warranty terms a buyer can read before paying

The short answer

Federal law directs the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules requiring that the terms of any written warranty on a consumer product be made available to the consumer, or prospective consumer, prior to the sale of the product.

The rule that implements that is titled Pre-Sale Availability of Written Warranty Terms. It states that its requirements apply to consumer products actually costing the consumer more than fifteen dollars, and it splits the obligation between the seller and the warrantor.

A separate statutory section then requires a designation. Any warrantor warranting a consumer product by means of a written warranty must clearly and conspicuously designate it as either a full warranty, with a statement of duration, or a limited warranty. Which label applies depends on whether the warranty meets a set of federal minimum standards.

So there are two separate questions, and they are often confused. Whether the text is available before you pay is one rule. Whether the warranty meets a federal minimum standard is a different one, and the answer to the second is printed on the warranty as a single word.

What the seller has to do, and what the warrantor has to do

The rule assigns duties to two parties who may or may not be the same company.

The seller of a consumer product with a written warranty must make a text of the warranty readily available for examination by the prospective buyer. It may do that by displaying it in close proximity to the warranted product, or by furnishing it on request prior to sale together with signs reasonably calculated to elicit the prospective buyer's attention, placed in prominent locations, advising prospective buyers that warranties are available on request.

The warrantor must supply sellers with the warranty materials they need in order to comply. The rule lists four means: providing a copy of the written warranty with every warranted product; providing a tag, sign, sticker, label, decal or other attachment containing the full text; printing or attaching the text to a package or container normally used for display purposes, in which case a copy must also accompany the product; or providing a notice, sign or poster disclosing the text, in which case a copy must also accompany each product.

The warrantor must separately provide catalog, mail order and door-to-door sellers with copies of written warranties they need to comply with the provisions written for those channels.

The website alternative, and the four conditions on it

The rule contains an alternative method of compliance, added in a 2016 amendment, and it is the one that describes most selling today.

A warrantor may provide the warranty terms in an accessible digital format on the warrantor's internet website. Electing that option carries four conditions, all of which are written into the rule.

It must provide information telling the consumer how to obtain the warranty terms, in a clear and conspicuous manner, in the product manual or on the product or product packaging, naming both the website where the terms can be reviewed and a phone number, postal mailing address, or other reasonable non-internet means for requesting a copy.

It must provide a hard copy of the warranty terms promptly and free of charge on request made through that non-internet route. It must ensure the terms are posted in a clear and conspicuous manner and remain accessible on the website. And it must provide enough information, with the product or on the website, for the consumer to readily identify which warranty terms apply to the specific warranted product.

The second condition is the one worth noticing. Posting terms online does not, under the rule, remove the obligation to supply a hard copy free of charge to someone who asks by the non-internet route.

Catalog and remote selling

The rule has a distinct provision for sales made without a personal visit to the seller's establishment, and it defines the category for itself.

Catalog or mail order sales means any offer for sale, or any solicitation for an order, for a consumer product with a written warranty, which includes instructions for ordering the product that do not require a personal visit to the seller's establishment.

For those sales the seller must clearly and conspicuously disclose, in close conjunction to the description of the warranted product, either the full text of the written warranty, or the address of the warrantor's website where the terms can be reviewed together with a statement that the written warranty can be obtained free on specific request and the address or phone number where it can be requested.

The rule defines close conjunction as on the page containing the description of the warranted product, or on the page facing that page. It permits the disclosure to sit instead in an information section of the catalog or solicitation, but only if that section is clearly referenced, including a page number, in close conjunction to the product description.

A cross-reference with no pointer is not what the rule describes. The pointer is part of the requirement.

Full or limited, and what the difference actually is

The designation requirement is statutory rather than a matter of style. If a written warranty meets the federal minimum standards, it shall be conspicuously designated a full warranty with a statement of duration. If it does not, it shall be conspicuously designated a limited warranty.

The minimum standards are four. The warrantor must as a minimum remedy the product within a reasonable time and without charge, in the case of a defect, malfunction, or failure to conform with the written warranty. It may not impose any limitation on the duration of any implied warranty on the product. It may not exclude or limit consequential damages for breach of any written or implied warranty unless that exclusion or limitation conspicuously appears on the face of the warranty. And if the product still contains a defect or malfunction after a reasonable number of attempts to remedy it, the warrantor must permit the consumer to elect either a refund or a replacement without charge.

There is a companion restriction on what may be demanded of the consumer. In fulfilling those duties, the warrantor shall not impose any duty other than notification as a condition of securing remedy, unless it has demonstrated, in a rulemaking or in an enforcement or informal dispute settlement proceeding, that the duty is reasonable.

One exclusion is written into the designation section itself. It, and the sections on warranty contents and minimum standards, do not apply to statements or representations which are similar to expressions of general policy concerning customer satisfaction and which are not subject to any specific limitations.

The designation provisions also carry their own threshold. They apply only to warranties pertaining to consumer products actually costing the consumer more than ten dollars and which are not designated full warranties.

What the statute says a warranty may be required to contain

The underlying statute lists items a Commission rule may require a written warranty to include. The list is worth reading as a checklist of what a complete warranty document looks like, whether or not any given rule requires each item.

Clear identification of the names and addresses of the warrantors. The identity of the party or parties to whom the warranty is extended. The products or parts covered. A statement of what the warrantor will do in the event of a defect, malfunction, or failure to conform, at whose expense, and for what period of time.

A statement of what the consumer must do and the expenses the consumer must bear. Exceptions and exclusions. The step-by-step procedure the consumer should take to obtain performance, including identification of any person or class of persons authorized to perform the obligations.

Information about the availability of any informal dispute settlement procedure the warrantor offers, and a recital, where the warranty so provides, that the purchaser may be required to resort to it before pursuing legal remedies. A brief general description of the legal remedies available. The time at which the warrantor will perform. The period within which, after notice of a defect, it will perform. The characteristics or properties not covered. And the elements of the warranty expressed in words or phrases which would not mislead a reasonable, average consumer as to its nature or scope.

That list is a useful lens even where the statutory scheme does not apply, because a document missing several of those items is a document that has left the reader to guess.

Whether any of this reaches a given purchase

The scheme is built on two defined terms, and both are narrower than everyday usage.

A consumer product means any tangible personal property distributed in commerce and normally used for personal, family, or household purposes, with products purchased solely for commercial or industrial use excluded for the rule's purposes.

A written warranty means either a written affirmation of fact or written promise made in connection with the sale of a consumer product which relates to the nature of the material or workmanship and affirms or promises that it is defect free or will meet a specified level of performance over a specified period, or a written undertaking to refund, repair, replace or take other remedial action if the product fails to meet specifications set out in the undertaking. Either way, it has to become part of the basis of the bargain.

Whether a particular preparation sold in this market is a consumer product, and whether a particular seller statement is a written warranty within those definitions, are questions about that product and those words. This article does not answer them, and nothing here says the scheme does or does not apply to anything sold in this category.

What the definitions are good for is reading a document with the right question in mind. A promise about performance over a period is a different object from an expression of general policy about customer satisfaction, and the statute treats them differently by name.

Sources

Each document below is named as it names itself, with the date printed on that document rather than the day it was read.

1. Title 16 Code of Federal Regulations Part 702, Pre-Sale Availability of Written Warranty Terms, read in full — the definitions of consumer product, written warranty, warrantor, seller, supplier and manufacturer at 702.1; the scope at 702.2; and the duties of seller and warrantor, the four-condition website alternative, and the catalog and mail order provisions with the definition of close conjunction at 702.3; Source note 40 FR 60189, Dec. 31, 1975, as amended at 81 FR 63669, Sept. 15, 2016 — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Office of the Federal Register, September 2026
2. United States Code Title 15, Section 2302, Rules governing contents of warranties — read at subsection (a) for the thirteen items a Commission rule may require a written warranty to include, and at subsection (b)(1)(A) for the direction that warranty terms be made available prior to sale — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2026
3. United States Code Title 15, Section 2303, Designation of written warranties — read in full for the full and limited designations, the exclusion for expressions of general policy concerning customer satisfaction, and the ten dollar threshold — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2026
4. United States Code Title 15, Section 2304, Federal minimum standards for warranties — read at subsection (a) for the four standards and at subsection (b) for the restriction on imposing any duty other than notification on the consumer — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2026