Gift cards are an excellent way to say thank you or to give to someone on a special occasion. If you’ve ever received a gift card, have you ever forgotten to redeem it in time? Although gift cards allow you to take your time choosing something you truly want, they also come with an expiration date.
Did you know that as of 1 November, there are new legal requirements for gift cards? This is to help prevent Australian’s losing out on gift cards due to the expiration date, amongst other things. Just to note these changes do not apply to gift cards issued before 1 November 2019 and these cards and vouchers continue to have the same expiry period and applicable fees as at the time of purchase.
All gift cards are now under these changes subject to and must meet the following new requirements for legal compliance:
These new conditions apply even where the gift card might be considered a financial product i.e. where provided as an incentive on the purchase of insurance products. There is no maximum length of time that a gift card may allow for redemption.
The three-year minimum expiry period does not, however, apply where the gift card is:
Post supply fees may include ongoing charges for the maintenance of the card. A full list is available at Schedule 1, items 4 and 6, subsections 2(1) and 99C(2) of the Australian Consumer Law. Some common examples, however, are activation fees, account keeping fees and balance enquiry fees. Post supply fees do not, however, include fees that may be charged as a part of the sale of the gift card, including for example international transaction charges, booking fees, payment surcharge fees and fees charged for the re-issue of a gift card due to the gift card being lost, stolen or damaged.
These requirements are required to be implemented by anyone who, in trade or commerce, supplies a gift card to a consumer. This may not necessarily be the person who first sells the gift card (for example, this will not capture a wholesale gift card company selling gift cards to a retail company) or the person who gives the gift card to the final end-user. Whether the supply is undertaken in trade or commerce will be determined by reference to the definition
of ‘trade or commerce’ in section 2 of the Australian Consumer Law.
A contravention of any of these requirements is a strict liability offence. The maximum penalty per offence is $30,000 for a body corporate and $6,000 for persons other than a body corporate.
Business owners who provide gift cards should, therefore, make the following changes moving forward:
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