E-Warranty Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 1359, the E-Warranty Act. And I want to thank Mr. Loebsack and Mr. Mullin for their contributions to the bill.

The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission to amend its current rules on warranty notice to allow the pre-sale notice requirements to be fulfilled by making warranty information available online. While I support this commonsense proposal, I would like to highlight one point that the bill rightly acknowledges--there are many consumers and small business owners without Internet access.

This bill requires that contact information of the product manufacturers be made available so consumers may obtain warranty information by non-electronic means. To ensure that consumers and small business owners without Internet access are not disadvantaged, this Committee expects the FTC to require that consumers be provided with a toll-free phone number and warrantors respond to non-Internet requests for free and in a timely manner.

Moreover, I am confident that when the FTC changes its rules pursuant to this bill, it will maintain the protections that currently exist for consumers and small business owners who do not have Internet access, including requiring manufacturers to ensure sellers can fulfill their obligations under the bill and the rules.

This bill will help modernize the rules regarding pre-sale warranty notice by allowing warranty information to be made available online. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source