A camper trailer warranty in Australia is two things at once, and the buyer’s job is to keep them apart. The first is a voluntary promise: the manufacturer or the dealer says it will repair, replace or pay for a defect, on stated conditions, for a stated period. The second is a set of consumer guarantees written into the Australian Consumer Law that attach to the sale automatically, cannot be signed away and usually outlast the warranty. The document you are handed at the dealership governs only the first. The law governs both.
Two things follow. The warranty document has a prescribed form: regulation 90 of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 lists what it must contain, down to a sentence of mandatory text. And every condition in it, from servicing intervals to off-road exclusions to transfer on resale, limits the promise, not your statutory rights. This explainer sets out what the law requires of the document, what the guarantees underneath it say, and eight things to check before you pay a deposit. It reads the Act as compiled on 1 July 2026 and the regulations as compiled on 11 August 2026. It is not legal advice, and no manufacturer’s warranty document was assessed to write it.
Two layers: the warranty document and the consumer guarantees
The Australian Consumer Law is Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Three of its definitions do most of the work in a warranty dispute.
| Layer | Where it comes from | Who is bound | Can the seller exclude it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer guarantees | Sections 54 to 59 | The supplier, and for some guarantees the manufacturer | No. Section 64 voids a contract term to the extent it “purports to exclude, restrict or modify” a guarantee |
| Warranty against defects (the “manufacturer’s warranty”) | Section 102(3); the document must meet regulation 90 | Whoever gives it; section 59 makes compliance a guarantee | Its own conditions apply to it, but they cannot touch the guarantees |
| Express warranty (any specific promise about the goods) | Section 2; guaranteed by section 59 | Manufacturer under 59(1), supplier under 59(2) | No. Once made, section 59 guarantees it will be kept |
A warranty against defects is “a representation communicated to a consumer in connection with the supply of goods or services, at or about the time of supply, to the effect that a person will (unconditionally or on specified conditions)” repair, replace or “wholly or partly recompense the consumer” if the goods are defective, and it “includes any document by which such a representation is evidenced” (section 102(3)). A warranty clause on a sales contract is caught as much as a formal booklet.
An express warranty is any “undertaking, assertion or representation” about “the quality, state, condition, performance or characteristics of the goods”, the parts or services they may need, or the future availability of identical goods (section 2). The ACCC says it “may be made verbally or in writing”; a claim that a chassis is hot-dip galvanised, or that a trailer carries a stated payload, is a promise of that kind.
The consumer guarantees exist because the Act says so. Section 64A lets a supplier limit its liability to repair or replacement, but only for goods “other than goods of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption”. In our reading a camper trailer is goods of exactly that kind, so a “repair or replacement only” clause cannot rely on it. The ACCC’s summary is that “warranties can’t replace, change or take away a consumer’s basic rights” and that those rights “can last longer than a business’s warranty”.
Does the Australian Consumer Law cover a camper trailer purchase?
The guarantees apply when goods are supplied “in trade or commerce” to a consumer. Under section 3(1) a person acquires goods as a consumer “if, and only if” the amount paid did not exceed $40,000 or a greater prescribed amount; or the goods “were of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption”; or they “consisted of a vehicle or trailer acquired for use principally in the transport of goods on public roads”. Regulation 77A prescribes $100,000. It was inserted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Acquisition as Consumer—Financial Thresholds) Regulations 2020, which commenced on 1 July 2021, and regulation 100 applies it to goods acquired from that date.
For most camper trailers the price limb settles the question. Above $100,000 the second limb turns on the kind of goods rather than the particular buyer, and in our reading a camper trailer is goods ordinarily acquired for personal use, so even a business purchase would qualify unless section 3(2) applies (goods acquired for re-supply or for use in production). That is our reading of the words, not a ruling.
Two exclusions sit inside the guarantees themselves. Each of sections 54 to 59 applies only where “the supply does not occur by way of sale by auction” and only where the supplier acts “in trade or commerce”. A trailer bought at auction, or from a private seller, does not carry those guarantees against that seller. The manufacturer route below is different, and it is the one that matters to a second-hand buyer.
What a camper trailer warranty document must contain under regulation 90
Section 102(2) makes it a contravention, carrying a pecuniary penalty, to give a consumer “a document that evidences a warranty against defects that does not comply with the requirements” prescribed under section 102(1). Regulation 90(1) is the list.
| Requirement | Reg 90(1) | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| “A document that is transparent” | (a) | Something you can read and keep, not a verbal assurance |
| A concise statement of what the warrantor must do to honour it, and what the consumer must do to claim | (b) | Your obligations: registration, servicing, inspections, notification periods |
| The mandatory text in regulation 90(2) | (c)(i) | The paragraph quoted below, word for word |
| The name, business address, telephone number and email (if any) of the person giving the warranty, “prominently” | (d) | A named legal entity with an Australian address, not a brand name alone |
| “The period or periods within which a defect … must appear” | (e) | Structural, componentry and appliance periods each stated |
| The claim procedure, “including the address to which a claim may be sent” | (f) | Where and how a claim is lodged |
| “Who will bear the expense of claiming the warranty” and, if the warrantor does, how to claim it back | (g) | Who pays to get the trailer to the repairer and home |
| That the benefits “are in addition to other rights and remedies of the consumer under a law” | (h) | The sentence that tells you the guarantees still apply |
The mandatory text for goods, from regulation 90(2), is:
“Our goods come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.”
The ACCC adds that this information “must be available with the actual product”; it “is not enough to refer consumers to this information on a website or in-store”. A business may add its own explanation, but “must ensure that any extra information doesn’t limit or negate the mandatory text”.
The consumer guarantees that sit underneath the warranty
The six guarantees on goods are sections 54 to 59. The middle column is the Act’s text; the right column is our reading.
| Section | Guarantee | Against a trailer |
|---|---|---|
| 54 | Goods are of acceptable quality: “fit for all the purposes for which goods of that kind are commonly supplied”, “acceptable in appearance and finish”, “free from defects”, “safe” and “durable”, judged as “a reasonable consumer fully acquainted with the state and condition of the goods” would | Subsection (3) makes the price and “any representation made about the goods by the supplier or manufacturer” part of the test. A premium price and an off-road claim raise the bar |
| 54(4), (5) | No failure where the only reasons were “specifically drawn to the consumer’s attention” before the sale, including by a written notice displayed with the goods | Disclosed ex-demonstrator damage cannot later found a claim |
| 54(6), (7) | No failure where the consumer “causes them to become of unacceptable quality, or fails to take reasonable steps to prevent” it and the goods “are damaged by abnormal use”; nor where a pre-purchase examination “ought reasonably to have revealed” the problem | Where arguments about corrugations, water crossings and overloading are fought |
| 55 | Goods are “reasonably fit for any disclosed purpose” the consumer “makes known, expressly or by implication” to the supplier, the negotiator or the manufacturer, unless it was unreasonable to rely on their skill or judgment | The strongest reason to put your intended use in writing on the order form |
| 56 | Goods “correspond with the description” | The specification sheet and order form |
| 57 | Goods correspond with a “sample or demonstration model in quality, state or condition” | Ordering from a show-stand unit |
| 58 | The manufacturer “will take reasonable action” to keep repair facilities and parts “reasonably available for a reasonable period”, unless it gave written notice at or before the sale that they would not be | A written parts-availability notice switches this off |
| 59 | The manufacturer, and separately the supplier, “will comply with any express warranty” it gave | The brochure claim becomes a guarantee |
Repair, replace or refund: who chooses
The remedies are in Part 5-4, and the line that decides everything is whether the failure is a major failure. Under section 260(1) it is major if the goods “would not have been acquired by a reasonable consumer fully acquainted with the nature and extent of the failure”; depart “in one or more significant respects” from the description or demonstration model; are “substantially unfit” for their common purpose, or unfit for a disclosed purpose, and “cannot, easily and within a reasonable time, be remedied”; or “are not of acceptable quality because they are unsafe”. Under section 260(2), lesser failures “taken as a whole” can add up to one.
| Situation | Who chooses | What the Act allows |
|---|---|---|
| Failure can be remedied and is not major | Consumer requires a remedy “within a reasonable time” (s 259(2)(a)); supplier chooses how (s 261) | Repair, replacement “with goods of an identical type”, or refund |
| Supplier “refuses or fails” within a reasonable time | Consumer (s 259(2)(b)) | Fix it elsewhere and “recover all reasonable costs”, or reject the goods (subject to s 262) |
| Failure is major or cannot be remedied | Consumer (s 259(3); s 263(4)) | Reject and elect a refund or a replacement “of the same type, and of similar value”, or keep the goods and recover “any reduction in the value” |
| Any failure | Consumer (s 259(4)) | Damages for loss that “was reasonably foreseeable” |
Three provisions matter more for a trailer than for most goods. Section 262 ends the right to reject once “the rejection period for the goods has ended”, the time “within which it would be reasonable to expect the relevant failure … to become apparent”; the Act sets no number of months. Section 263(2) requires a rejecting consumer to return the goods unless they “cannot be returned, removed or transported without significant cost to the consumer” because of the failure or “the size or height, or method of attachment, of the goods”, in which case the supplier must “collect the goods at the supplier’s expense” (section 263(3)); store credit does not satisfy a refund (section 263(5)). And section 271 lets an “affected person” recover damages from the manufacturer directly for a failure of acceptable quality, of a description the manufacturer applied, of the parts guarantee, or of the manufacturer’s own express warranty, within three years of when the person “first became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware” of it (section 273). Section 272(2) counts “the cost of inspecting and returning the goods to the manufacturer” as a foreseeable loss; section 271(6) bars a reduction-in-value claim by someone who invoked the manufacturer’s express warranty unless the manufacturer “has refused or failed to remedy the failure” within a reasonable time.
Section 274 explains a familiar dealership conversation: the manufacturer “is liable to indemnify” the supplier for the costs of an acceptable quality failure. A dealer who says “take it up with the factory” is describing its own indemnity, not the limit of its liability under section 259.
Who is the manufacturer of an imported camper trailer?
Section 7(1) says a manufacturer “includes” a person who assembles goods; one who “holds himself or herself out to the public as the manufacturer”; one who “causes or permits” their name, brand or mark “to be applied to goods supplied by the person”; and “a person who imports goods into Australia” where the actual manufacturer “does not have a place of business in Australia”. Section 7(2)(b) presumes that a person whose brand is on the goods caused it to be applied “unless the contrary is established”.
For a trailer built overseas and sold under an Australian brand, the brand owner is a manufacturer on at least one of those limbs, so the section 58, 59(1) and 271 obligations sit with an Australian entity. That is the entity whose name, address, telephone number and email regulation 90(1)(d) requires on the warranty. Compare it with the manufacturer named on the trailer’s compliance plate and with the trailer’s entry on the Register of Approved Vehicles. If the names differ, ask why before you sign.
The buyer’s checklist: eight things to check before you sign
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Get the actual warranty document before the deposit. Not a summary, not a link. The ACCC says the mandatory information must be available with the product. Check every row of the regulation 90 table above.
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Identify who is giving it. The document must prominently name a person with a business address, telephone number and email. Under section 7 the Australian brand owner or importer is a manufacturer. Match the name to the compliance plate and the RAV entry.
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Read the periods, plural. Structural, componentry and appliance warranties may run for different terms and come from different entities. Note who stands behind the fridge, the battery system and the suspension, and whether any written notice under section 58(2) limits parts availability.
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List every condition, and separate the ones about use. Servicing intervals, authorised repairers, definitions of “off-road”, water-crossing and corrugation exclusions and load limits are conditions of the warranty. Failing one may cost you the warranty (the ACCC’s example is a missed annual service); the guarantees remain, and whether the same facts amount to “abnormal use” under section 54(6) is a separate question. Put the use you intend in writing on the order form so that section 55 applies to it. For load, see ATM, GTM and tare and payload.
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Find who pays to move the trailer. Regulation 90(1)(g) requires the document to say who bears the expense of claiming. Read it against section 263(3), which puts collection of rejected goods on the supplier where size makes return costly, and section 272(2), which makes the cost of returning goods to the manufacturer recoverable.
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Check what it says about resale. A warranty may refuse transfer to a second owner; that is a condition of the promise and the Act does not override it. The guarantees are different: an “affected person” under section 2 includes “a person who acquires the goods from the consumer (other than for the purpose of re-supply)”, which in our reading lets a later owner pursue the manufacturer under section 271, even though section 259 is framed around the consumer who bought from the supplier.
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Keep every express claim. Brochures, the website specification, the price list and what the salesperson said are express warranties under section 2, guaranteed by section 59, and section 29(1)(m) prohibits “a false or misleading representation concerning the existence, exclusion or effect of any condition, warranty, guarantee, right or remedy”. Save the documents as they stood on the day you signed; manufacturers revise them.
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Confirm the mandatory text is there and nothing contradicts it. Section 64 voids a contrary term anyway, so a “no refunds” or “repair only” clause is void to that extent. But a document that omits the regulation 90(2) paragraph, or buries it under a clause that contradicts it, tells you something about the supplier’s compliance before you have spent a dollar.
What this checklist does not do
- It is not legal advice, and neither is the ACCC’s guidance: the ACCC says it does not “review warranties before they are issued” or “resolve individual disputes about warranties”. Disputes go to state and territory fair-trading bodies and tribunals, not covered here.
- It does not deal with the services guarantees in sections 60 to 63, which apply to repair work done under a warranty, or with safety recalls, which run under different legislation; see how vehicle recalls are published and checked.
- It does not assess any manufacturer’s warranty. Warranty terms carry 15 per cent in our published methodology, where the criterion is “the length and scope of the structural and componentry warranty, including any conditions that limit off-road or commercial use”. This article explains what to read; it scores no one.
- The text quoted is Compilation No. 165 of the Act and Compilation No. 99 of the regulations. Either may be amended after the access dates in the sources.
Disclosure and how we verified this explainer
Camper News AU is edited by Gauthier T., who works with brands in the Australian camper trailer industry, including Breath Trailer. Breath Trailer is subject to the Australian Consumer Law in the same way as every other supplier and manufacturer described here; it had no part in this article and received no favourable treatment in it. Its warranty document, like every other manufacturer’s, would be read against the same checklist under our methodology.
We downloaded Volume 4 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Compilation No. 165, the volume containing Schedule 2), the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 (Compilation No. 99) and the 2020 threshold regulations from the Federal Register of Legislation on 30 August 2026, and read the ACCC’s warranties and consumer guarantees pages the same day. Every quotation above is taken from those texts. If a later compilation changes a provision cited here, we will update this article and log any material change on the corrections page.