Gift Voucher Act comes into effect

IF you get a gift voucher this Christmas, there will be no rush to cash it in. 

The Consumer Protection (Gift Vouchers) Act 2019 came into operation last Monday, December 2.

Many gift vouchers until now have had expiry periods of just one or two years and in some cases it has been as little as six months.

However, as of December 2 anyone who receives a gift voucher will have the certainty that it will be valid for at least five years.

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, said: “I am very pleased to be able to bring the five-year expiry date and a number of other important protections for consumers into effect from Monday.

“I am particularly pleased to do so at the start of the Christmas period when many of us will buy or receive gift vouchers.

“Consumers should not find themselves unable to use gift vouchers given to them by family members or friends because of unreasonably short expiry periods imposed by gift voucher issuers.”

The Bill also includes provisions that ban a number of unfair terms in gift voucher contracts which were brought to the Minister’s attention in the course of her Department’s public consultation on gift vouchers.

The first of these provisions outlaws any term in a gift voucher contract that requires the full value of a voucher to be spent in one transaction.

Where a gift voucher cannot be used more than once and the consumer does not redeem the full amount of the voucher in an initial purchase, the business will now be required to reimburse any remaining balance of more than one euro by way of cash, electronic transfer or another voucher.