Importing and selling child restraints

This page contains information for commercial importers and retailers on importing and selling child restraints in New Zealand.

• Legal requirements for child restraints
• Legal responsibilities of retailers

Legal requirements for child restraints

There are legal requirements that child restraints must comply with. You should be aware of these if you're intending to:

• import a child restraint for sale in New Zealand
• sell a new child restraint.

International standards

All child restraints sold in New Zealand are required to comply with one or more approved international standards. These are:

• Australian Standard/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 1754: Child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles
• British Standard BS 3254 for adult seat belts, forward-facing child safety seats and child harnesses
• British Standard BS AU185 for booster cushions
• British Standard BS AU202: Specification for rearward-facing restraint systems for infants, for use in road vehicles
• UN/ECE Regulation No. 44: Child restraint systems (Europe)
• Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 213: Child restraint systems (USA)*.

* Note that NZ standards mark certification must be obtained for child restraints complying with the US FMVSS 213 standard. (This is carried out by Bureau Veritas New Zealand — email bv.nz@nz.bureauveritas.com or freephone 0800 007 262.)

Standards marks

Restraints that have been certified by the Bureau Veritas certification mark scheme will be labelled with an 'S' mark.

Restraints that comply with other standards will also carry standards markings — for example:

AS/NZS 1754	AS/NZS 1754
UN/ECE 44 (example only)	British standards

Legal responsibilities of retailers

Child restraint retailers are legally responsible for making sure that any restraint they sell complies with the requirements set out above. This means that if you're a retailer of child restraints, you must be able to produce, on request, appropriate documentation proving compliance with one of the approved standards. (These documents will be available from the restraint manufacturer.)

Anyone selling child restraints that do not comply with approved standards can be fined up to a maximum of $500 per offence. They may also be required to recall any non-compliant child restraints that have been sold.

The legislation relating to child restraint standards is set out in Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Equipment 2004.

Last updated: 10 May 2005