Chapter 548
2004 -- H 7424 SUBSTITUTE A
Enacted 07/09/04
A N A C T
RELATING
TO COMMERCIAL LAW - GENERAL REGULATORY PROVISIONS -
UNFAIR
SALES PRACTICES
Introduced
By: Representatives Kennedy, Giannini, San Bento, Lewiss, and Anguilla
Date
Introduced: January 29, 2004
It
is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION
1. Section 6-13-12 of the General Laws in Chapter 6-13 entitled "Unfair
Sales
Practices"
is hereby amended to read as follows:
6-13-12.
Sales of gift certificates. – “Gift certificate” means a record
evidencing a
promise,
made for monetary consideration, by the seller or issuer for the record that
goods or
services
will be provided to the owner of the record to the value shown in the record
and includes,
but
is not limited to, a record that contains a microprocessor chip, magnetic strip
or other means
of
storage of information that is pre-funded and for which the value is
decremented upon each
use,
a gift card, an electronic gift card, stored-value card or certificate, a store
card, a prepaid
telephone
card, or a similar record or card. Any person, firm, or corporation that sells
gift
certificates
for any product or merchandise sold by the person, firm, or corporation, shall
be
required
to record the sales and keep an accurate and complete record of each of
these gift
certificate
sold. certificates
for a period of two (2) years from the date of the sale. The record shall
include
the date of sale, the full value of the certificate, the identification number
assigned by the
retailer
to the certificate, and the state in which the sale of the certificate took
place. The retailer
shall
further be required to give to the purchaser of gift certificates exceeding
fifty dollars
($50.00)
a written and numbered receipt evidencing the sale of the certificate. It shall
be unlawful
for
any person, firm, or corporation restaurant or eating establishment
of any kind to charge
additional
monthly or annual service or maintenance fees on gift certificates or to limit the time
for
the redemption of a gift certificate or to place an expiration date upon the
gift certificate. No
gift
certificate or any agreement with respect to such gift certificate may contain
language
suggesting
that an expiration date may apply to the gift certificate. Any person, firm, or
corporation
that shall violate the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine
of not more
than
two hundred dollars ($200). Due to the unlimited redemption period, the
division of taxation
shall
not escheat the funds paid for those unredeemed gift certificates. Any
unused portion of a
redeemed
gift certificate shall be afforded to the consumer by reissuing the gift
certificate for the
unused
amount or providing cash where the balance due the consumer is less than one
dollar
($1.00).
This section shall not apply to the following:
(a)
General-use prepaid cards issued by a third-party prepaid card issuer which
shall
mean
plastic cards or other electronic payment devices which are: (1) usable at
multiple,
unaffiliated,
merchants or service providers and/or at automatic teller machines
("ATMs"); (2)
issued
in a requested amount which amount may be, at the option of the issuer,
increased to value
or
reloaded if requested by the holder; (3) purchased and/or loaded on a prepaid
basis by a
consumer
and shall not include debit cards linked to a deposit account, or cards
purchased by a
business
entity; and (4) honored upon presentation by merchants for goods or services,
or at
ATMs.
(b)
Gift certificates that are distributed to a consumer pursuant to an awards,
loyalty or
promotional
program without any money or other thing of value being given in exchange for
the
gift
certificate by the consumer. Any restrictions or limitations which such gift
certificates may
be
subject to must be disclosed to the consumer, in writing, at the time the gift
certificates are
distributed
to the consumer.
SECTION
2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC01313/SUB
A
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