This may vary. In Finland, I can contact seller, distributor or manufacturer (if it's locally made), whichever is more convenient for me. All have legal obligation to help me out and sort out the expenses and arrangements between each other. It does not really matter to me which of them is the warranty provider.

Ziemas, another thing crossed my mind: this seems to get sorted out now, but if things continue to get complicated, referring to EU Consumer Policy might help. All parties involved are in EU (manufacturer, seller and you). For details see EU Consumer Affairs web site.

--J

[edit] added distributor to the list of poss. contact points [/edit]