John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will try to finish by 7.55 p.m. Another Deputy has just come in.

If Deputies are aware of other unfair practices involving gift vouchers, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, would be glad to have details of them and is willing, where necessary, to introduce amendments to the Bill to address such practices.

So far, I have been discussing what is contained in the Bill. I must turn now to a provision that does not form part of the Bill. As Deputies may be aware, the scheme of the Bill, which the Minister received Government approval to draft in June 2018, included a provision authorising the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation to make regulations on fees for the issue and replacement of gift vouchers and for inactive balances on gift vouchers. The latter fees which range, from €1.40 to €3.50 per month are commonly known as dormancy or maintenance fees and apply after 12 months to electronic money gift vouchers such as the One4All and FromMe2You gift cards, as well as to some shopping centre gift cards.

Consumers understandably feel that they should be able to redeem gift vouchers at their full face value. While some of these providers may argue that their gift cards are not subject to expiry dates, if after 12 months €1.50 is being deducted every month from a gift card for a relatively small amount, it will not be long before the value of the gift card is completely wiped out. The Minister believes, in essence, this is an expiry date by another route. However, the providers of regulated electronic money gift vouchers maintain that the cost of providing the additional protections required by law for these products necessitates the imposition of fees.

While the Minister remains strongly in favour of the regulation of the gift voucher fees in question, a legal issue emerged in the course of drafting the Bill regarding the power proposed for the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation to make regulations fixing these fees. The issue related to possible encroachment on the regulatory regime for electronic money products. As the Minister did not wish to delay publication of the Bill further, she decided to omit the provision on the regulation of gift vouchers fees pending the outcome of the required legal review. If the review concludes that the provision to give the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation power to set certain gift voucher fees would not involve an impermissible or inappropriate double regulation of electronic money gift vouchers, the Minister would propose to reintroduce it on Committee or Report Stage. The fee-setting power proposed for the Minister would be subject to certain conditions, including requirements for prior consultations, for fees to be proportionate and commensurate with the costs incurred by businesses in supplying and servicing gift vouchers, and for consumers to be protected.

I now turn to the purpose of each of the sections of the Bill. Section 1 refers to the Consumer Protection Act 2007 as the Bill’s provisions will form a new Part 4A of that Act. The incorporation of the Bill’s provisions in the 2007 Act means that the comprehensive enforcement regime in Part 5 of the Act will apply to breaches of these provisions.

Section 2 provides for the insertion in the 2007 Act of Part 4A comprising new sections 66A and 66B. Section 66A defines gift vouchers and provides for a number of exclusions from the definition. These exclusions relate first to vouchers usable only for the purchase at a discounted price of specified goods or services from a specified trader or traders on a specified date or for a specified period of limited duration. They apply, second, to vouchers supplied under a customer loyalty or promotional scheme and, third, to vouchers supplied to a consumer by way of a refund for goods by a consumer to a trader. It may be necessary to provide for further exclusions by way of amendment to clarify that products such as transport or telephone cards, which would not generally be regarded as gift vouchers, do not come within the scope of the definition.

Section 66B provides for the five-year expiry date for gift vouchers outlined earlier and for the requirement for the trader to inform the consumer of the expiry date, if any, to which the voucher is subject. The section also contains provisions addressing unfair practices which, first, require gift vouchers to be redeemed in full in a single transaction and, second, which preclude the use of vouchers because of issues relating to the name of the recipient or which impose a fee to change or amend the name of the recipient of the voucher. The section also includes offences provisions and definitions of "expiry date" and "durable medium".

Section 3 of the Bill provides for consequential amendments to the Consumer Protection Act. Section 4 contains provisions on the Short Title, citation of the Act and commencement.

See this speech in context