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In Australia, all new products sold are required to have a warranty, from a toaster to a Toyota. In the Australian telescope market, it is the retailer who wears this. All warranty repairs are conducted by trained staff in their own facilities.
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The Trade Practices Act imposes certain limited warranty rights, but there are similar consumer protection provisions in the USA and many other countries.
It's not correct that the retailer actually carries out all warranty repairs in Australia. It depends on what is wrong and how it is to be fixed. Some retailers are capable of simple repairs (eg replace circuit board) but in many cases they have to send the product back to the manufacturer as the manufacturer either is the only party capable of repair or has to review the defective product to authorise a replacement.
Many Australian retailers are small one or two man operations incapable of anything beyond the simplest repairs and have to send almost everything back.
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When you buy in the US (this is US customers), if your telescope goes defective, the retailer won't have a bar of it. You have to send the telescope back to the manufacturer. At your cost. The manufacturer is responsible for warranty repair costs.
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Depends on the type and cost of the repair and the retailer. I've read enough consumer stories on CN to know that sometimes the retailer looks after it and often the manufacturer pays for the shipping if it has to be sent back. Again it depends on what the product is and the nature of the repair.
I know in my own dealings with OPT that when I asked them about warranty coverage on a TV eyepiece I was thinking of buying from them that they told me they would handle it for me.
Even if there is some extra warranty cost that Australian retailers must bear that US retailers don't what I don't get is why some manufacturers are able to sell their product here at prices that are reasonably close to US prices yet others seem to charge very large price loadings.