Germany’s body tasked with monitoring advertising has cast doubt that Opel will back down before midnight tonight (19 August) in its dispute concerning a recent warranty campaign.
Opel – in common with its UK sister Vauxhall – recently ran print, television and internet advertising promoting its lifetime warranty guarantee but has provoked the ire of Germany’s Wettbewerbszentrale or Centre for Protection Against Unfair Competition.
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Wettbewerbszentrale maintains Opel needs to make several points clearer in its warranty advertising, such as a 160,000km (100,000 mile) limit for first buyers only and the fact that after three years owners will have to pay an annual EUR11.90 (US$15.30) fee to renew the scheme.
“In the German print ads, they [Opel] say you get the warranty for the car [but] when you sell the car the warranty is over,” Wettbewerbszentrale lawyer Andreas Ottofulling told just-auto from Munich. “This is against the rules of fair competition.
“It is a long life warranty guarantee and they cut it when the car has reached 160,000km. If you drive 40,000km a year, after three or four years the warranty is done. After three years you have to pay a separate fee every year – they didn’t communicate this.”
Opel has until midnight tonight (19 August) to decide if it will alter its advertising or faces being taken by the Wettbewerbszentrale – a non-government organisation – to Germany’s civil Landgericht court in Darmstadt near Frankfurt.
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By GlobalDataHowever, Ottofulling was not optimistic Opel would compromise before the midnight deadline – a view a seemingly borne out by a defiant statement the automaker sent to just-auto.
“On 15 August we received a letter from the Centre for Competition that contained a complaint about the term ‘lifetime warranty’,” it noted, adding: “The warranty is not time-limited [and] typically for the auto business our warranty also contains a mileage-limitation, that is, 160,000 km. This more than covers the average eight-year ownership period for first owners.
“Given the uniqueness of this initiative, we are not surprised by the reactions of some competitors. Most importantly we will keep our new warranty programme as promised to our customers.”
General Motors’ Vauxhall division recently said it had no plans to change its advertising for the UK version of the Opel warranty while Kia Motors’ UK unit decided to comply with the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority ruling it must alter the wording of its seven year warranty promotions.
