State
Senator David J. Cappiello (R-Danbury) has proposed legislation
that would end the escheat provision currently in place for
gift certificates. Current law assumes that a gift certificate
that is not redeemed within three years is abandoned, which
results in the monetary value of the certificate being returned
to the state.
“Last session I worked to help amend a variety of our
state’s laws on gift certificates. No longer do gift
certificates decrease in value after a predetermined amount
of time. Plus, businesses can no longer sell gift certificates
with assigned expiration dates. Although State Treasurer Denise
Nappier supported these changes, she also fought to prevent
the elimination of the escheat provision on gift certificates,”
said Senator Cappiello.
Treasurer Nappier also recently touted on television ads
that last year’s legislation prohibits all expiration
dates on gift certificates. However, Senator Cappiello points
out, without the language eliminating the escheat provision,
that is not entirely true.
“Essentially, this escheat provision sets up a de
facto expiration date of three years. As the law is written
now, card-holders would be unable to redeem their gift certificates
after that time frame. By any name, that is an expiration
date,” explained Senator Cappiello.
The escheat provision also requires businesses issuing
gift certificates to obtain and maintain the address of
the card’s owner. In the absence of an address, the
owner shall be assumed to be the office of the Treasurer.
“It is
abundantly clear that in many ways this provision is a real
burden on businesses and consumers alike because this type
of record keeping is incredibly impractical. There is a
reason they are called “gift” cards, because
most people give them to others as presents,” said
Senator Cappiello. “In that case, who is the rightful
owner of the card, the giver, whose address is on record,
or the receiver? We need to end the confusion by finishing
the work we started last session and eliminate this escheat
provision.”
The General Law
Committee, on which Senator Cappiello serves as a Ranking
Member, has raised this concept and is in the process of
scheduling a public hearing on the matter. |
