If the tomatoes are on display, and you see that they are rotten (read the discussion thread to see that there are issues) and you STILL purchase said tomatoes, then no, you don't have any protection. You got exactly what you paid for.... rotten tomatoes. It's not the vendors issue that you did not pay attention when purchasing them (unless you live in a nanny state where everything is done for you).
First of all, IF. If the rotten tomatoes are on display, which aren't in this matter as their is no builtin mechanism to detect if devs sell rottem tomatoes (a.k.a. that they are disappeared and dont care).
Second of all, you are wrong. Even if the tomatoes are on display, if you advertise selling fresh tomatoes, you have to deliver that. It doesn't matter that your tomatoes are on display and are rotten, and I can see them. You are selling me by agreement fresh tomatoes, not rotten. You have to deliver what is promised, not what I see or is on display.
You have to mark those tomatoes as rotten, and sell them under other agreement. The vendors can't sell whatever they want. Everything has a regulation. Just in your world maybe this is possible.
It IS your responsibility to make sure it meets YOUR NEEDS. If it doesn't, then it doesn't deliver. If you purchase an add-on with 12 months of support and you get your 12 months of support and then they halt cease support of that add-on, then they met expectations. It's NOT their responsibility to make sure the add-on meets YOUR requirements - that is your responsibility.
You are talking something different here. I never talked about a situation where a dev delivered support and disappeared after that. Of course that is totally ok, never said anything against this. But you have a thing talking about B, when I talk about A.
A word... don't try to speak for others, because frequently you will be incorrect. What you see is your interpretation of what they are saying - and language barriers can cause issues (classic case was your "meaning" support for a few months but your stating a 12 month support provided).
Yes, clearly there is a language barrier in my case and I admit that this can cause misunderstandings. Nevertheless I try to speak for a group of people cause in a community someone has to speak up to protect other people, which I try in this case. I don't insist on to be right all the time or that everything what I say is the final word, but I feel an obligation.
And technically they could postpone any support until month 12. Nothing requires them to get a "fix" out on a set timeline (other than good coding/developing/business practices).
No, they can't. Cause they have to write it down in the agreement.
Doubtful... EU does not have any jurisdiction for items sold in the U.S. - which a number of add-on authors appear to be. If the transaction occurred in the EU you might have a leg to stand on - but if they are a US developer your EU laws cannot be enforced (even though they may wish that they could be - they aren't the world government).
Well I was more thinking of the EU when I said that. Actually, when it comes outside of EU, it is actually based on the location of the seller. But if it is VAT, then it is based on the location of the customer. Nevertheless I am totally sure that the laws in US include customer protection and have guarantee clauses.
Pretty sure that there have been actions taken on developers that had "issues" with fulfilling agreements (or at least the warning of actions that would be taken if they weren't fulfilled).
I don't think so. As I said, "disappearing" for x amount of time is majorely happening all the time. Never have seen actions taken because of that.