Warranty Rights in the Netherlands: The Statutory Guarantee (Wettelijke Garantie)

Warranty rights (garantie) are one of the most misunderstood parts of Dutch consumer law, because the word covers two very different things. One is a promise a shop or manufacturer chooses to give; the other is a right every buyer has by law, whether or not anyone mentions it.

Getting the two apart is the whole point of this page. The statutory right is the stronger of the two, it applies to every consumer purchase, and it cannot be taken away by fine print.

This page explains what the statutory guarantee covers, how long a product must last, who has to prove a defect, what a consumer can demand when something is faulty, and how a manufacturer's guarantee fits on top.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Netherlands law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The two guarantees, and why the difference matters

Almost every dispute about garantie comes from confusing a commercial promise with a legal right. The distinction is worth stating once, plainly, before anything else.

Dutch law gives every consumer a statutory guarantee (wettelijke garantie): a product must conform to the contract and have the properties a buyer may reasonably expect for normal use (artikel 7:17 BW). This is mandatory and cannot be signed away. A manufacturer's or seller's guarantee (commerciële garantie, also called a fabrieks- or verkopersgarantie, artikel 7:6a BW) is a separate, voluntary commitment on top of it, and it never reduces the statutory rights.

The practical effect is that a consumer always has at least the statutory guarantee, and sometimes a commercial one as well. A shop cannot use its own shorter guarantee to shut down the legal one.

What conformity means

Conformity is the core of the statutory guarantee. Artikel 7:17 BW says the delivered good must answer to the contract, which means it must have the properties the buyer could reasonably expect, including everything needed for normal use of that kind of product.

What a buyer may reasonably expect takes account of the nature of the product, its price and any statements the seller made about it. A budget kettle and a premium one are not held to the same standard, because the expectation is measured against what was actually bought.

How long a product must last

Dutch law sets no fixed number of years for the statutory guarantee. Instead of a hard cut-off, the conformity test asks how long a product of that kind, at that price, should reasonably last with normal use.

That is why the statutory right can outlast a shop's own guarantee. A washing machine that fails after three years may still be non-conforming, even though a two-year commercial guarantee has expired, because a buyer could reasonably expect it to last longer. The lifespan is a matter of how the conformity norm is applied, not a figure written into the article.

The first year: who has to prove the defect

The timing of a defect decides who has to prove what, and the first year is treated specially. Artikel 7:18a lid 2 BW provides that where a defect appears within one year of delivery, the product is presumed not to have conformed at delivery.

In practice that reverses the burden of proof for the first year. The seller, not the buyer, has to show that the product did conform when it was handed over, or that the nature of the product or of the defect rules the presumption out.

After the first year the presumption falls away. The buyer can still rely on the statutory guarantee, but now has to show that the product did not conform at the time of delivery, which becomes harder the more time has passed.

A worked example shows the split. A dishwasher stops working four months after delivery: that is within the first year, so it is presumed to have been defective at delivery and the seller must prove otherwise. The same fault appearing at eighteen months falls outside the year, so the buyer has to show the machine did not conform when it was delivered.

What a consumer can require

When a product does not conform, the statutory guarantee gives a ladder of remedies rather than a single one. Artikel 7:21 BW puts repair or replacement first: the buyer can require the seller to repair the item or to deliver a replacement, and the seller carries the cost of doing so.

If repair and replacement are both impossible, or the seller does not carry them out within a reasonable time, artikel 7:22 BW opens the next step. The buyer can then reduce the price in proportion to the defect, or unwind the purchase (ontbinding), unless the defect is too minor to justify undoing the sale.

The commercial guarantee on top

A commercial guarantee is what people usually mean by the word garantie: the promise printed on a card or set out in the terms when a product is bought. Artikel 7:6a BW recognises it as a voluntary commitment by the seller or the manufacturer to repair, replace or refund on the guarantee's own terms.

Two things follow. The commercial guarantee binds whoever gives it to whatever the garantiebewijs says, so it can add rights, such as a longer repair window or an on-site service. But it never subtracts: artikel 7:6a BW states that it applies without prejudice to all the other rights the law gives the buyer.

So a two-year manufacturer guarantee is a floor the seller chose to add, not the ceiling of the buyer's rights. When it expires, the statutory guarantee is still there for as long as the product should reasonably have lasted.

Guarantee, or the right to change your mind

The statutory guarantee is about a product that is faulty, which is a different thing from the right of withdrawal for a product that is simply unwanted. A distance buyer can cancel a sound item within 14 days for any reason, as set out on the right of withdrawal; the guarantee applies whether or not that period has passed, and only when there is a defect.

Which court hears a warranty dispute

A consumer-sale dispute has its own forum rule, and it is the one point where the usual money threshold does not apply. Artikel 93 Rv sends a case about a consumer purchase (consumentenkoop) to the kantonrechter regardless of the amount at stake.

So a high-value claim, about a defective car or a fitted kitchen, is still heard by the kantonrechter rather than the rechtbank. The general EUR 25,000 threshold for the kantonrechter does not limit a consumer sale.

Related pages

For cancelling rather than repairing a purchase, see the right of withdrawal. If an unpaid debt ends in enforcement against wages, see wage attachment and the beslagvrije voet. The wider structure of Dutch law is set out on Netherlands law.