Examining The Magnuson-Moss Warranty ActWith all of the various lemon laws that have been enacted by the individual states across the country, you would think that there would not be a need for federal regulation. But, it must be noted that the proliferation of individual state statutes targeting consumer protection rights is a relatively recent phenomenon. States were slower to add comprehensive lemon laws and other warranty rights laws so it was the federal government that stepped in to provide an all-encompassing protection bill that was to be called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. For those not familiar with the law, what follows will be a brief examination of some of basic provisions of the law. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty became law after being passed by Congress in 1975. What the law provided was a complete federal regulation of consumer product warranties, and monitors the activities of manufacturers and sellers regarding the warranties they produce. The law outlines the specific guidelines and requirements that manufacturers and sellers must adhere to and obligates them to disclose detailed information about their warranties to consumers and associated coverage. It is the purpose of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act to provide consumers necessary protections and rights to receive compensation from defection products and place manufacturers under obligation to provide sound warranty coverage. Notably, within the provisions of the Act, the origins of the standard number of repair attempts that constitute general practice in lemon law can be found. Termed the "three strikes" principle, it places a cap on the number of times a manufacturers can try to fix a defect before having to compensate the customer. On the other hand, the framers of the Act also wanted to increase the strength of what were called "pre-existing incentives" so that the manufacturers and sellers would benefit from doing the right thing. In this case, that meant simply performing their obligations stated in the warranty in a timely manner and efficient manner. This facilitated the more effective resolution of consumer disputes. For consumers, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act also provided new avenues for resolving their breach of warranty disputes in private because it does establish a better foundation for manufacturers to deal with consumer problems with less expense and more importantly without resolving to arbitration and litigation. The federal law did much to reinforce the lemon laws already present in some states and broaden the terms of protection in many instances. The greater coverage afforded by Magnuson-Moss influenced the development of lemon laws in those states that had not yet formulated any substantial legislation. In some measure, this sped up the state response time, so that at the present time, all states in the United States have lemon laws. |