Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Warranty

What do you mean "against the law"? Some things are illegal in the sense that you can be fined or jailed for doing them, like running a red light or stealing a box of call phones.

There is another tier of wrongs that are better called "unlawful," such as staying in a rented property after the lease expires, for which an "unlawful detainer" action can be brought, but you won't be fined or jailed.

Finally, at the lowest rung of the ladder, are things like breach of contract (which is not even considered "immoral" in many situations) and innocent mistakes such as poorly-trained store clerks making warranty exchanges which the manufacturer won't back up, thus causing a loss to the store owners who were dumb enough to hire and poorly train the clerks. In such a case, the store might decide to apply some kind of discipline to the employee making the mistake, but many wouldn't go beyond a stern admonishment or maybe discharge. (There are a lot of folks looking for store clerk jobs these days).

If, however, there is no mistake, and the person delivering the box of phones and the clerk making the exchange are co-conspirators, both are doing something illegal and both could be convicted of one or more crimes and face fines, jail or prison.