Apple products must come with three-year warranty in Spain

Apple will be required to offer at least three years of warranty in Spain after the country approved a new national consumer protection standard.

The Spanish Council of Ministers recently approved extending the existing warranty period to a mandatory three years, Spain-based blog iPadizate has reported. According to Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the move is meant to take the country a step further toward a circular economy.

It isn't clear when the new regulation will take effect, but it will impact all new Apple devices sold in the country. That includes both iPhone and iPad models, as well as Apple Watch and Mac devices.

Along with the additional year of warranty coverage, manufacturers will be required to keep spare parts for devices for a minimum of 10 years, up from five. Spain is also bumping its limitation period from three years to five.

There are other details in the new consumer protection regulations, including mandating that consumers be able to choose whether they want a replacement device or a repair for a defective product.

Apple officially offers a one-year warranty on iPhone products in addition to local rights provided by country-specific consumer laws.

This isn't the first time Apple has had to comply with local regulations that differ from its own policies or procedures. In France, for example, Apple is required to keep shipping EarPods with its iPhone devices. Apple has also been forced to include chargers with new iPhones sold in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.

22 Comments

dee_dee 7 Years · 130 comments

About 3 years ago

Congratulations Spaniards, prices for your Tech gadgets are about to go up!

lkrupp 19 Years · 10521 comments

dee_dee said:

Congratulations Spaniards, prices for your Tech gadgets are about to go up!

Funny how people don’t think about that when they scream and holler about warranties. The prices will have go up at least as much as an AppleCare contract costs. What, people think the manufacturer will absorb the increased warranty costs?

bobolicious 10 Years · 1178 comments

...curious - I'd like to see life cycle costs in comparison to the (enigmatic 3 year current?) orphaning of security updates that seems the unofficial macOS system software regimen... Personally I'd vote for a target of a 10 year software support cycle (W7?) as well, and look to more voluntary upgrade options on both merit and consumer demand, lest the customer be relegated to being held to ransom out of fear for security vulnerability simply to feed development...?

avon b7 20 Years · 8046 comments

dee_dee said:

Congratulations Spaniards, prices for your Tech gadgets are about to go up!

Why do you think that will be the case?

If that were to be the result, upgrade cycles would probably be extended but pricing would be irrevelant in the context of the reasons for this change (which I haven't heard anything about yet anyway).

For over a decade now the cost of recuperating, recycling and safe disposal of electrical and electronic equipment has been included in the purchase price.

At this point in time very few people are aware of that fact because it didn't have a major impact on price. I doubt that an extra year of warranty will have either.

ipilya 17 Years · 191 comments

dee_dee said:

Congratulations Spaniards, prices for your Tech gadgets are about to go up!

wow... nice! I hope this happens before I buy my new iPad Pro ( btw - its only 1 additional year) - and yeah... if it does, then I will simply buy in France or Italy :smiley: