L’Competition Authority and the market Xiaomi fined 3.2 million euros. According to the Xiaomi Technology Italia Authority, it would have hindered the exercise by consumers of legal guarantee rights on electronic products.
In particular, from the proceedings it emerged that the company “refuses the repair under the legal guarantee in the presence of other product defects, even only aesthetic ones – for example if the surfaces and / or other external parts of the product have more than one scratch on the screen, not exceeding 5 hundredths of a millimeter in width and 5 mm in length -, making the warranty service subject to repair for damages out of warranty. “Contacted by Italian Tech, Xiaomi has not commented on the fine received at the moment.
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According to the Authority, Xiaomi would also carry out “repeated repairs instead of replacing the product, thus repeatedly depriving the consumer of the purchased good”. The Authority reminds that the intervention of “repair” it can constitute a remedy only if it promptly resolves the lack of conformity.
Finally, Xiaomi Technology Italy – in the event of a negative verification of a lack of conformity of the goods – asks to pay the costs of verifying the defect and shipping the product, under penalty of non-return, if the consumer refuses the estimate of the out-of-warranty repair. Instead, it is up to Xiaomi to verify the possible existence of the reported lack of conformity without charging any verification or shipping costs.