Macs Effectively Now Have a Three-Year Warranty in Australia and New Zealand Under Consumer Law - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Macs Effectively Now Have a Three-Year Warranty in Australia and New Zealand Under Consumer Law

If you bought and own a Mac in Australia or New Zealand, your computer effectively now has warranty coverage for up to three years from its original date of purchase, even without purchasing optional AppleCare+ coverage.

mac family trio lineup
Apple will now offer warranty coverage on most Mac parts for up to 24 months after its limited one-year warranty period, under consumer law in each country, according to an internal document distributed to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers and later obtained by MacRumors.

Apple is complying with existing Australia and New Zealand laws giving consumers the right to ask for a repair or replacement free of charge if a product experiences failure within a "reasonable" amount of time after purchase.

Mac owners can inquire about service under Australian and New Zealand consumer law at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider, but we can't guarantee that every employee will be knowledgable about this policy. The change in policy is effective from today—that's December 13, 2017.

Eligible parts include the display, battery, SSD or hard drive, RAM, logic boards, GPU, internal cables, power supply, and other electronic components, so virtually every aspect of a Mac is covered, according to the document.

Apple provides a summary of consumer law, its limited one-year warranty, and its optional AppleCare+ coverage on its website in Australia and New Zealand.

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...

Top Rated Comments

DaveP Avatar
108 months ago
Of course when prices increase further in Australia, that will be purely coincidental. Customers will pay for this one way or another.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
108 months ago
By now, the average expected service life of electronic components should be well known. It’s ridiculous that manufacturers can absolve themselves of any liability for defective or subpar parts by declaring a warranty period of their own choosing. The warranty should be proportional to the quality level declared by the manufacturer. If Apple, for example, were to advertise that their laptops meet a defined industry specification for best-in-class parts, then Apple should back up that claim with a better guarantee. What do they stand to lose if their advertising claim is genuine? Meanwhile, a discount-minded manufacturer can declare a lower quality expectation for its product and have less liability for performance failures.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
b5stephen Avatar
108 months ago
I’m not sure why people think prices will go up. There is no new law here. New Zealand has had this law for decades. The difference is that Apple now has internal policies that fully recognise the Consumer Guarantees Act instead of consumers needing to bring Apple before a tribunal each time it disagrees with what a ‘reasonable’ period of time means.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
108 months ago
Of course when prices increase further in Australia, that will be purely coincidental. Customers will pay for this one way or another.
Give me a break. In Ireland, they don't even cover two years as per EU law, and the prices are already unbelievably exorbitant, regardless of taxes, import charges and other factors. They should follow local laws and people should stop bitching about it and making excuses.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
108 months ago
This shouldn't be a problem for Apple because I never had problems with Mac in a first 4-5 years, but rest of PC industry going to struggle.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrapplecored Avatar
108 months ago
Give me a break. In Ireland, they don't even cover two years as per EU law, and the prices are already unbelievably exorbitant, regardless of taxes, import charges and other factors. They should follow local laws and people should stop bitching about it and making excuses.
I love Apple gear, but... most Apple products are built in China and the shipping from there to any Western European country is probably the same and the Euro is the same all over, so there should be no price difference from Ireland to Italy. Apple should respect EU warranty regulations and for a modern device costing in the thousands 2 years really is not much to expect it to last!

Apple does not clarify on its website the warranty laws for each country it sells in, just what AppleCare costs, that is a bit cheeky. I applaud NZ and Australia for making a 3 years warranty period, consumer electronics in this day and age should be able to last at least that long before ANY problems begin to emerge. Having said that we have bought Apple gear as our computers have all lasted 6-10 years each, but not without problems (HD just died out of the blue on our laptop etc...).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Related Apple News: Powerbeats Pro | Ios 26 2 Make Your Iphone Screen Flash For Alerts | Studio Display Xdr | Ipad | Apple 50th Anniversary