Effective today, all New Zealand retailers are required to honour gift cards for a minimum of three years from purchase.
This stems from the Fair Trading (Gift Card Expiry) Amendment Act 2024. The reform targets retailers’ former practice of short 12-month expiries and follows long-standing campaigns by Consumer NZ.
Businesses failing to honour the three-year gift card validity face fines up to $1,000 per breach, with prosecution possible in serious cases.
Consumer NZ Communications and campaigns manager Jessica Walker said the law covers both physical and digital gift cards, requiring the expiry date to be prominently displayed on the card.
“Our research has found in the past that about $10 million is going on unspent gift cards every year,” she said.
“That’s literally money for nothing to the retailers.”
Walker cited Consumer NZ research showing about one in five gift cards go unspent.
“What that means is people are receiving gift cards, putting them in their pockets, and they’re not realising that they’ve got it until it’s too late.”
Walker highlighted exceptions to the rules, including gift cards issued for returned goods, transport cards, debit cards, prepaid phone top-ups, loyalty cards, festival passes, and those sold for charity. Prepaid cards such as Prezzy cards are, however, covered by the new rules.
The Commerce Commission will monitor retailers, with authority to issue fixed penalty notices and pursue prosecutions.
“There inevitably will be some businesses who have not quite caught up with the new legislation, and we will look to work with those businesses to ensure that we have the understanding and the right steps in place,” Commerce Commission principal compliance officer Grant McIntosh said.
He emphasised that the three-year minimum expiry applies regardless of what the retailer tells the customer.
“Importantly, from the consumer’s perspective, whether or not the right information is on the card or not, they have a three-year expiry date.”
“A consumer can rely on it whether or not it states that on the card; they can take that to a disputes tribunal if they wish.”
The Commerce Commission urges customers to report non-compliant retailers by lodging a concern directly on its website.