Who Pays When Your Customer's Sauna Fails in Year Three?

Key Takeaways

• In the EU your customer has two years to come back at you, the seller, under Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2019/771.

• Norway and Iceland run five years for goods meant to last substantially longer than usual. Sweden runs three.

• Belgium and Sweden presume the defect was there at delivery for a full two years. Germany, Austria and the Netherlands stop presuming after one.

• Your contract with the factory is business to business. Consumer law doesn't govern it, and recital 63 leaves that link to freedom of contract.

• Article 18 gives you a right of redress, but national law decides against whom, how, and for how long.

• Germany is the only country below with the reseller's recourse claim written into statute, at two years from delivery (section 445a BGB).

You can close the gap between what your customer can claim from you and what you can claim from your factory. We ship saunas from KlaipÄ—da to partners across Europe, so that gap sits on our side of the desk too. By the end of this article you'll know the three numbers to write into your next supply contract.

who pays when your customer's sauna fails in year three?

When your customer's sauna fails in year three, the bill lands on whoever sold it to them. In Norway and Iceland the statutory claim can run five years, not two, for goods meant to last substantially longer. Sweden runs three. Belgium, Austria, Germany and most of the EU stop at two. Your own contract with the manufacturer is a business-to-business contract, and consumer law doesn't reach it. If that contract is silent, year three is yours.

That split is the whole problem. Almost nobody reads both halves before signing.

The two-year number is a floor, and it points at you

Most resellers have read the same line: the EU gives two years of legal guarantee. It's true and it's incomplete.

Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2019/771 makes the seller liable for a lack of conformity that existed at delivery and appears within two years. The same article lets Member States keep or introduce longer time limits. Several did, and they're exactly the markets where outdoor saunas sell best.

Here's the part that gets missed. The guarantee runs against the seller, and the seller is you. Your customer has no statutory claim against a workshop in Lithuania. They have a claim against the company whose invoice they hold.

Search this in English and you get law firm pages written for consumers, or American reseller pages written for a market with no statutory guarantee at all. Neither mentions the contract behind you.

A statutory guarantee and a commercial guarantee are not the same document

Mixing them up is what leaves resellers exposed.

A commercial guarantee is a promise somebody chose to make. Under Article 17 of the Directive, a producer offering a durability guarantee is liable directly to the consumer for repair or replacement throughout that period. The guarantee statement must also say that legal remedies against the seller are unaffected. That promise is real, readable, and it has an end date printed on it.

A statutory guarantee is a period nobody chose. You can't shorten it in your terms and conditions, and it doesn't care what the factory printed.

One is a document. The other is a law. Only one of them arrives in the post.

Two clocks, and they run in opposite directions

Clock one runs forward. It starts when your customer takes the sauna, and the country they live in sets its length.

Clock two runs backward. It starts when the factory hands the sauna to you, and your supply contract sets its length.

All periods below were checked against the primary legislation in July 2026.

Now run the Norwegian numbers. Your customer's clock can run 60 months from the day they take the sauna. Under the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, which many cross-border B2B sales fall under by default, you lose the right to rely on a defect if you give the seller no notice within two years of actual handover, unless that limit is inconsistent with a contractual period of guarantee. That's 24 months. Sixty minus twenty-four is thirty-six.

Thirty-six months in which the claim is enforceable against you and unenforceable by you.

And your 24 months don't start when the customer buys. They start when the crate reaches your yard. A container that lands in March and sells in October has burned seven months of your notice window before your customer's clock has even started. In Norway that pushes the gap to 43 months.

That gap has a name on our shop floor. The Two-Season Apology is the bill that arrives after the paperwork has run out and before the customer has stopped caring. That is who pays when your customer's sauna fails in year three.

What should you write into your supply contract before the first container?

Three numbers. Not clauses. Numbers. Copy the lines below, hold them against your current contract, and see which are missing.

1. The guarantee period against the factory. This is the number of months the manufacturer stays liable to you for a defect that was already there at handover.

   Here's how you check it. Search the signed contract for the word guarantee and read the number beside it. No number means no period.

   "The Seller guarantees the Goods against defects in materials and workmanship for [60] months from the date of handover to the Buyer. The Parties agree that this constitutes a contractual period of guarantee within the meaning of Article 39(2) CISG."

2. The notice window. This is how many days you have to tell the factory once you or your customer find the fault.

   Here's how you check it. Find the notification clause and read the number. If it says "reasonable time" and nothing else, you'll argue about it later, in someone else's language.

   "The Buyer shall notify the Seller of any lack of conformity within [60] days of the Buyer becoming aware of it."

3. The stock clock. This is how many months a unit may sit in your yard before the factory guarantee stops covering your customer's full statutory period.

   Here's how you check it. Subtract the statutory period in the country of final sale from the factory guarantee, and read what's left.

   "Factory guarantee (months) − statutory period in the country of final sale (months) = months a unit may sit unsold."

   Sell into Norway on a 60-month factory guarantee and the answer is zero. Every month on the shelf is a month at the far end you carry alone. Ask for 72 and you've bought a season of stock.

None of this is legal advice. It's the list of numbers your lawyer will ask you for, and the questions sit alongside the rest of how you spot a reliable sauna manufacturer.

You don't need to reopen every supply contract this quarter. Do one thing. Pull the signed contract for the units standing in your yard right now and look for a number next to the word guarantee. If there's no number, there's no period, and year three is already yours. Your name is on the sauna long after the truck has gone.

How long is the legal guarantee for goods in the EU?

Two years is the EU minimum. Article 10 of Directive (EU) 2019/771 makes the seller liable for a lack of conformity that existed at delivery and appears within two years, and lets Member States introduce longer limits. Sweden runs three. Norway and Iceland, outside the EU but inside the EEA, run five for durable goods.

Does the two-year guarantee apply to business-to-business sales?

No. Article 3 limits Directive (EU) 2019/771 to sales contracts between a consumer and a seller, and Article 2 defines a consumer as a natural person acting outside their trade, business, craft or profession. Your purchase from a manufacturer is business to business. Its guarantee period is whatever your contract says, or whatever general sales law supplies.

Can a reseller claim back from the manufacturer after paying a customer?

Article 18 of the Directive says yes in principle. It also says national law decides against whom and under what conditions, and recital 63 leaves the chain to freedom of contract. Germany writes it out in section 445a BGB, running two years from delivery and never expiring earlier than two months after you satisfy your own customer.

Which countries give more than two years on durable goods?

Norway and Iceland both set five years for goods meant to last substantially longer than usual, against a two-year default. Sweden sets three years for everything. The Netherlands sets no fixed term and asks instead what the buyer could reasonably expect at that price.

When does the burden of proof move to your customer?

It depends on the country. Belgium, Sweden and Norway presume the defect existed at delivery for two years. Germany, Austria and the Netherlands presume it for one. Iceland still runs six months. After that window your customer has to prove the fault was there when the sauna was handed over.

Primary sources, all accessed July 2026: Directive (EU) 2019/771, Lovdata, Althingi, Riksdagen, § 445b BGB, WKO, FPS Economy Belgium, ACM Netherlands, Article 39 CISG.