It would certainly apply throughout the EEA in the terms as
originally asked, that is items returned untouched as this
would mean that they were first placed on the market before
the deadline. The Commission guidelines of October 1993
state that the term placed on the market in Article 2 of the
directive means the first making available ...of a product
covered by the directive in the community market.
The specific reference to the exclusion of repairs
in the definitions given in regulation 3 (2) of the UK
statutory instrument is a UK peculiarity and is not mentioned
in the directive or the commission guidelines. I am not aware
of it being in any other countries implementation. It is certainly
not in the German implementation and will not be in the
implementations of those countries, like France who chose
to pass the directive verbatim into national law. In such
countries there may be arguments as to whether repaired
products are the same products as placed on the market
originally. I would think you would have a good chance of
winning such an argument but it is not clear cut as it is in
the UK
Nick Rouse
