Inside the box was the guarantee. This being Europe and all, the guarantee was in multiple languages for different countries. The one for UK and Eire reads thus:
Here's what Austria gets:
Now I may not speak German, but I can see the difference between 12 and 24 there...
Checking through, we find: Russia gets 6 months; UK, Eire, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and France get 12 months; Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany get 24 months; I don't know what the situation is in Sweden, Czech Republic or Slovakia is because their guarantees don't use numerals. I may be wrong with the others, too, as I can only see the numbers and (except for the French ones) not what many of the words mean. Still, there does seem to be something of a disparity between countries.
Why is this?
Well some hint comes in the guarantees for the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Greece, where the wording (such as I can make out, given I don't speak Dutch, Portuguese or Greek — but I do know some Spanish) seems to suggest that the guarantee is for 6 months beyond that of the "legal guarantee". There are actually two guarantees in operation: one given by JVC and one given by European law (for countries in the EU, anyway — tough luck, Russia et al). As I've mentioned before, the legal guarantee period is 2 years. In some countries, such as Germany and Austria, it appears JVC has to fess up about this; in others, such as the UK and France, it merely has to say that this guarantee of theirs doesn't affect your rights under law — neglecting to mention that these rights mean that they have to deal with your broken piece of equipment up to two years after you bought it, not just one year. I don't know why Spain and the others get an extra 6 months; maybe there's some local legislation that forces the extension.
All in all, it's all a bit suspect.
Oh, standard legal disclaimer, because JVC is rich and I'm not: none of the above is remotely true, it's all lies, don't believe a word of it, please don't sue.