Through Law 1480 of 2011, the legislature sought to ensure the effectiveness and free exercise of consumer rights, in order to protect respect for their dignity and economic interests, providing them with security and protection regarding the manner in which the warranty on products and services is executed in terms of quality, suitability, safety, and good condition. Likewise, this same regulation determines the limits or scope of liability on the part of providers and/or producers, thereby protecting both contractual parties.
In compliance with Law 1480 of 2011, producers and/or providers are obligated to answer for the quality, suitability, safety, good condition, and proper functioning of products, with the consumer generally having a period of one year to enforce the warranty. This time limit may be shorter or longer depending on the conditions of the good, whether the sale is perfected with respect to a good whose legal warranty has expired, whether the good has been repaired, or if, on the other hand, the warranty sought to be enforced pertains to real property in relation to its stability or finishes.
This liability on the part of producers and/or providers is limited in Article 16 of the Consumer Statute, which establishes four scenarios in which exoneration from warranty liability prevails, namely: (i) force majeure or fortuitous event, (ii) the act of a third party, (iii) improper use of the good by the consumer, and (iv) the consumer's failure to follow the installation, use, or maintenance instructions provided in the manual. It should be clarified that with respect to the latter, the same Law 1480 establishes that this ground for exoneration from warranty liability cannot be invoked if the instruction manual has not been supplied in the Spanish language.
Now, regarding the exoneration of the producer's and/or provider's liability due to improper use by the consumer, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, in Judgment No. 00009804 of October 6, 2017, establishes that when seeking to assert this warranty exoneration, it is not sufficient for the provider and/or producer to simply refuse to honor the warranty by alleging that the good is deteriorated or does not meet the quality and suitability specifications due to misuse by the consumer, since, in the words of the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, this refusal must be accompanied by a technical analysis. This analysis, in a careful and detailed manner, must demonstrate that the damage caused to the good originates from the improper implementation or misuse of the good by the consumer.
Based on the foregoing, we can establish that, just as the warranty is a means for consumers to enforce their right to obtain quality goods or services, it has certain exceptions regulated in Article 16 of the Consumer Statute. Thus, the law protects the rights of both parties involved in commercial relations, limits the application of the warranty, and determines the cases of exoneration from liability, with such limitations also being referenced by the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce.