Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 14) — The Senate passed on third and final reading on Monday a bill prohibiting expiry dates on gift checks.
This is Senate Bill No. 1466, or the Gift Check Act of 2017.
“A gift certificate, check or card is, for all intents and purposes, good as cash. It is purchased with money, and money having no expiry date, it follows that gift checks must bear no expiry date,” Senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, author of the bill, said in a statement.
“Once enacted, this will firm up the gains of consumers, both buyers and recipients of gift checks,” he added.
Zubiri is chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship.
Under the measure, gift checks and certificates in the form of paper, card, code, or other devices have an indefinite shelf life, requiring the merchant providing the check to honor it.
Merchants and issuers are not allowed to impose an expiry date on the stored value, credit, or balance of the gift check.
Coupons and vouchers, which cover discounts or pre-identified goods, are not covered in the bill.
Also excluded from the bill are gift checks issued to customers “under loyalty, rewards or promotional programs, as determined by the Department of Trade and Industry.”
Violators will be subject to a fine of between P50,000 to P1 million.
However, issuers are also protected from honoring lost and mutilated or defaced checks where “such damage prevents the issuer from identifying the security and authenticity features thereof.”
It also allows the issuer to prescribe reasonable rules for changing, upgrading, or updating the check as long as it requires no expense on the part of the consumer.
The House of Representatives also has a counterpart measure, House Bill 6016 or the Gift Check Non-Expiry Act, consolidated from two proposals. According to the Congress website, the bill is pending with the Committee on Rules.
