You Probably Own More Than You Think. You Just Cannot Find It.

Earlier this year, eight million Australians received a court notice about a class action against JB Hi-Fi. The allegation is straightforward: extended warranties sold over twelve years may have had little real value because Australian Consumer Law already gave customers the same rights for free. Whatever the courts decide, the case has prompted a question worth sitting with. When was the last time you actually knew what you were covered for, and where to find it when something went wrong?

For most people, the honest answer is: not recently, and not easily. That is not a personal failing. It is what happens when an entire layer of commerce has been left unbuilt.

The Moment After Purchase Has Always Been Broken

Think about the last appliance you bought. You have statutory rights under Australian Consumer Law that protect you well beyond the manufacturer warranty, regardless of whether you paid for an extended warranty or not. But do you know exactly what those rights are? Do you know when they expire? Do you know who to call and what to say if your washing machine fails three years from now?

A CHOICE survey from 2023 found that seven out of ten Australians misunderstand their rights under Australian Consumer Law. That is not a statistic about ignorance. It is a statistic about a system that has never been designed to make those rights clear, accessible or easy to act on.

Retailers face the same problem from the other side. They spend between $300,000 and $1 million per year at the mid-market level on entitlement-related support, much of it manual, much of it unverifiable, and close to 10% of it lost to fraudulent claims. They have every incentive to give customers clear information, but no infrastructure to do it consistently at scale.

The information gap between what consumers are entitled to and what they actually understand is not the result of bad intentions on either side. It is the result of a system that was never properly built.

What Clarity Actually Feels Like

Imagine that the moment you buy a television, a refrigerator or a new home, a verified digital record is created automatically. No form to fill in. No receipt to keep safe. No warranty booklet to file away and never find again. Everything you are covered for, by whom, and until when, sitting in one place on your phone.

When something goes wrong, you open the Entitle Guard wallet and ask: “Is my dishwasher still covered?” You get an instant, accurate answer. You know exactly who to contact and what you are entitled to claim. No hold music. No searching through email threads. No uncertainty about whether you lost the receipt.

For retailers, that same moment means a verified record exists showing the customer received clear, structured information at the point of sale. Claims are verifiable. Fraud is detectable. The post-purchase relationship becomes a channel for trust rather than a source of friction.

Ownership Should Work for Everyone

The JB Hi-Fi case, whatever its outcome, has started a conversation that was overdue. Transparency in the post-purchase relationship is not a burden on retailers. It is the foundation of a relationship worth having. Consumers who genuinely understand what they own, and trust the brand that helped them understand it, are the most valuable customers a retailer can have.

The broken post-purchase layer is not just a frustration for consumers and a cost burden for retailers. It is a signal that an entire infrastructure category has been waiting to be built. In our next piece, we look at what that opportunity looks like from the outside, the scale of the market, the forces converging around it, and why the window to define the category standard is open right now. If you are thinking about where the next layer of commerce gets built, that one is for you.

Entitle Guard exists to make that foundation real: a single platform where entitlements are captured at purchase, stored securely, explained clearly and accessible instantly. For consumers, it is peace of mind. For retailers, it is the infrastructure that makes trust scalable.

Note: This blog does not constitute legal advice. For information about the JB Hi-Fi class action, visit mauriceblackburn.com.au/jbhifi or seek independent legal counsel.