Hacker News Reader

Comment by germanier | Hacker News Reader

They are not a US company nor do they operate from within the US at all. That law does not apply to their warranty.

They market to US customers, sell to US customers and process payments through US financial institutions, so legally they operate in the US. Just as Prusia himself is protected by GDPR protections from US companies which offer services to citizens of EU even if they aren't physically located there.

Honestly, I'm not well versed in US law but as far as I understand, you need to show nexus to apply it which has totally different and much more nuanced criteria compared to the GDPR (which simply spells those out)

You need to show nexus mostly for tax related matters. If you are slighted by a foreign company you can still receive a judgement against them or their functionaries, and in extreme matters the company and its distributors would start having issues with CBP and with their banks.

The damages required for such issues can be quite high, $50-75k for federal court filing, but existing precedent would allow you to go after distributors in a local court for a lower amount.

We are talking about a warranty-related claim, not a claim about damages they'd have to pay regardless of the warranty offered.

But anyway: If I travel outside the US and buy a harmful appliance in a local shop, a US court would probably not take the case. Am I right? What would the manufacturer have to do to get exposure to US law?

They do trade shows here, at least before the pandemic, so they do have some exposure to US laws.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com