Digital warranty cards in India: replacing the paper card with a QR code

What is a digital warranty card?

The paper card has three jobs: it states the terms, it records the purchase and it gets stamped by the dealer. A digital card moves the terms to a page and the record to a form. The customer no longer needs a pen, and you no longer need someone to key in cards that arrive late or not at all.

It can sit alongside the paper you already print. A short printed card that says “Scan to register your warranty” covers customers who look for a card in the box. If you want to see the product behind this idea, read warranty registration by QR code. This guide is about the decisions you have to make whichever tool you use.

What does the customer do?

1. Scans the code with the phone camera. A form behind a code shouldn’t need an app or an account, because each of those loses people.
2. Reads the terms in plain words: how long, what’s covered, what isn’t and how to claim.
3. Fills in a few fields, preferably in Hindi or English as they choose.
4. Sees the warranty end date on screen, where it can be known, and gets a confirmation to keep with the bill.

Reach matters more than design. Print the line next to the code on the box, in the quick-start card and on a label on the product, so a customer who threw the box away can still register.

What data should you collect?

Ask only for what your service team will use. The DPDP Act limits consent to the personal data necessary for the specified purpose (section 6(1)), so a long form is both a registration problem and a legal one.

What counts as proof of purchase?

Registration is not proof of purchase. A form records what the customer typed. Proof is normally the seller’s bill or invoice, or the order invoice from a marketplace. Your warranty terms should say which documents you accept, and they should say so before the customer needs them.

• The bill is the customer’s right. Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, not issuing a bill, cash memo or receipt for goods sold, in the prescribed manner, is an unfair trade practice (section 2(47)(vii)).
• Tell customers to keep it. Say it in the confirmation message, and say whether a photo or a marketplace PDF is acceptable.
• Decide what happens without a bill. You may fall back to the date of manufacture or a registration record, or refuse. It is your policy, so write it down and tell your service centres.

ItemDocs doesn’t take bill uploads. If your process needs the document at registration, you need a different tool. The alternative is to ask for it only when someone claims.

When should the warranty start?

Decide this deliberately if your product needs installation. On 9 November 2023, the Department of Consumer Affairs said it had written to industry associations and manufacturers of white goods such as refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines, strongly advising them to start the warranty from installation and not from purchase. Its press release says that starting a warranty when consumers can’t yet use the product is an unfair trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act.

On 22 June 2024, the Central Consumer Protection Authority reported a meeting with appliance companies on the same subject. It said consumers should be clearly told when the warranty starts before they buy, and it discussed whether installation date is workable and how to prevent abuse. We did not find a later binding rule, so treat this as a strong signal and take advice on it.

ItemDocs can start a warranty from purchase, installation, registration or manufacture. With installation, the registration form asks for the installation date and the confirmation shows the date the warranty ends. If the product isn’t installed yet, the customer can leave the date blank, and no end date is promised. The customer enters this date, so a brand that needs a technician to record it needs a service system as well.

What does the DPDP Act ask of you?

A warranty form collects personal data in digital form, so the DPDP Act applies to it, including where the data is processed outside India in connection with offering goods to people in India (section 3). The brand decides why and how the data is used, which makes it the Data Fiduciary. A vendor hosting the form is a Data Processor, and the Fiduciary stays responsible for what the processor does (section 8(1)).

Timing. The DPDP Rules were notified as G.S.R. 846(E), in the Gazette of 13 November 2025. Rule 3 on notice, and Rules 5 to 16 and 22 and 23, come into force 18 months after publication, which is May 2027. Sources differ by a day, so don’t plan to the last week.

Registration tool or full warranty system?

“Warranty software” can mean two different things. A registration tool records that a customer exists. A warranty system handles what happens when something breaks.