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Consumer Protection (UAE)Answered

What can I do if a retailer in the UAE refuses to honour a product warranty?

Asked by Anonymous·Jun 10, 2026·1 answers
My laptop developed a screen fault five months after I bought it from an electronics shop in the UAE, well within the warranty period printed on my receipt. The shop now claims the damage is 'user-caused' without any inspection report and refuses to repair or replace it. I'm unsure who decides such disputes and whether a complaint actually goes anywhere.

This answer is AI-generated and editorially reviewed. It is general legal information, not legal advice — verify anything you act on with a licensed UAE lawyer. How LEXAI uses AI

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LEXAI

Editorially reviewed by LEXAI

Jun 11, 2026
A retailer cannot defeat a warranty claim by bare assertion. Under UAE consumer protection rules, suppliers must honour the warranties they give, and a refusal on grounds of 'user damage' needs to be substantiated — which usually means an actual inspection and a written technical finding, not a counter-assertion at the service desk. Your move is to force the dispute onto paper. Write to the shop claiming under the warranty printed on your receipt, and ask for their written inspection report identifying the alleged user damage. If they cannot produce one, their position collapses. Then file a consumer complaint with the consumer protection authority — the Ministry of Economy's channels, or Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism if the shop is Dubai-licensed — attaching the receipt, the warranty terms and the refusal. These authorities mediate exactly this kind of dispute and can direct a licensed trader to honour its warranty; most retailers comply rather than risk regulatory trouble. An independent technician's report on the screen fault strengthens your hand further if the shop insists. Should mediation somehow fail, the courts remain open, but the large majority of warranty complaints resolve at the authority stage. A consumer lawyer can step in if yours becomes the exception.
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