How is that a promise? It’s a contract that they entered with everyone buying a Chromebook. Seems to me that breaking that would be a beach of contract, and I’d say it’s probably false advertising if they continue to sell Chromebooks with “10 years of updates”
you are correct, if they sold them with a paper saying there will be 10 years of updates they are required to provide 10 years of updates. If not then they could be taken to court for either fraud or false advertising. Which they would likely not show up to cause that’s usually their go to.
Companies update their agreements all the time, and we agree to them all the time, without ever reading them. When it comes to hardware, there are basically no consumer protections and companies can even legally hold your hardware hostage.
This issue drew attention to consumer protection laws. Norway is not a member of the European Union, but it is part of the European Economic Area (EEA), which means EU consumer-protection directives (such as those barring unfair commercial practices) are incorporated into Norwegian law. Observers noted that retroactively charging a subscription for a product that was sold under a no-fee premise might violate these rules, though as of mid-2025 it remained unclear if any official action would be taken. Some users discussed the possibility of legal recourse or a class-action lawsuit in response to Futurehome’s move.
Good reference! For the non EUropeans it’s worth mentioning that enforcement initially falls to the country itself, though subsequent appeals may be made to European courts. This depends on a ton of things.
In the US at least, you can’t change a terms of purchase via a terms of service.
So if it was stated at point of purchase that your system will be getting 10 years of updates, and then they decided six years in, you know what? We’re actually only going to do six years of updates, and then posted a terms of service that changed how long they were able to update it. That wouldn’t be legally binding.
In this case, though it doesn’t sound like they’re changing existing buyer’s agreements, it sounds like they are changing the purchase agreement for new consumers who haven’t purchased the product. which is far more legally enforceable as no agreement has been done in that case.
Still a shitty thing for them to do though, considering that they had promised that Chromebooks would have 10 years of updates but I don’t think they’re in violation of anything since it sounds like it’s only going to new consumers.
How is that a promise? It’s a contract that they entered with everyone buying a Chromebook. Seems to me that breaking that would be a beach of contract, and I’d say it’s probably false advertising if they continue to sell Chromebooks with “10 years of updates”
you are correct, if they sold them with a paper saying there will be 10 years of updates they are required to provide 10 years of updates. If not then they could be taken to court for either fraud or false advertising. Which they would likely not show up to cause that’s usually their go to.
Sounds like a massive class action suit waiting to happen.
Which will result in a settlement equivalent to $5 to each class member. Google still is net positive, and everything continues on as normal.
Someone already ran the numbers and it’s less expensive for them to do this than to even keep a skeleton crew on support for the end of the term.
Cost of doing business. Some MBA already did a cost-benefit analysis on this.
I think his name was Cornelius.
Companies update their agreements all the time, and we agree to them all the time, without ever reading them. When it comes to hardware, there are basically no consumer protections and companies can even legally hold your hardware hostage.
Your jurisdiction may vary
You might be more protected in theory than you are in practice.
Whom I had in mind was actually a Noreweigan company, FutureHome, who ransomwared their own cameras.
https://www.consumerrights.wiki/w/Futurehome_Smarthub_mandatory_subscription_fee
Good reference! For the non EUropeans it’s worth mentioning that enforcement initially falls to the country itself, though subsequent appeals may be made to European courts. This depends on a ton of things.
Yeah, I do agree your jurisdiction may vary.
In the US at least, you can’t change a terms of purchase via a terms of service.
So if it was stated at point of purchase that your system will be getting 10 years of updates, and then they decided six years in, you know what? We’re actually only going to do six years of updates, and then posted a terms of service that changed how long they were able to update it. That wouldn’t be legally binding.
In this case, though it doesn’t sound like they’re changing existing buyer’s agreements, it sounds like they are changing the purchase agreement for new consumers who haven’t purchased the product. which is far more legally enforceable as no agreement has been done in that case.
Still a shitty thing for them to do though, considering that they had promised that Chromebooks would have 10 years of updates but I don’t think they’re in violation of anything since it sounds like it’s only going to new consumers.
What contract? It’s a blog post. False advertisement for sure though.