Tie-in sales provision

The statute is 15 U.S.C. § 2302(c): no warrantor of a consumer product may condition a written or implied warranty on the consumer's use of an article or service identified by brand, trade or corporate name, unless it is provided free of charge under the warranty or the FTC has waived the rule. A waiver takes a showing that the product will function properly only with the named article or service, and the Commission publishes the application for comment.

The FTC's interpretation at 16 CFR § 700.10 names the clauses. A warranty "void if service is performed by anyone other than an authorized 'ABC' dealer" and a condition that "all replacement parts must be genuine 'ABC' parts" both violate the statute. The FTC's rule treats 'use only an authorized ABC dealer' as deceptive where the dealer's service is not free, because it implies the condition the statute forbids without quite stating it. For a parts-only warranty, the warrantor may not supply the part in a way that "impedes or precludes the choice by the consumer of the person or business to perform necessary labor" (§ 700.10(b)).

The limit is in the same paragraph: a warrantor may exclude liability for defects or damage caused by an unauthorized part or service, and may deny a claim where it "can demonstrate" that the defect was so caused. That is why the independent shop's own record of what it fitted is the customer's evidence.

The post on whether an independent shop voids the warranty has the rule, its limit and the sentence for the counter. The independent repair page covers the record.