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AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > March > 31 > Entry
Gift card bill requires clear indication of expiration date, fees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Companies will now be required to inform customers of store gift-card fees and the cards’ expiration dates under legislation passed today by a divided state House.
Proponents of Senate Bill 13 said the legislation will benefit consumers. Opponents contended the bill promotes deceptive trade practices.
“This is a great consumer protection bill,” Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ranger) told his colleagues. It lets recipients of gift cards know when they must use them before they expire, he said.
Under the legislation, the store gift cards must “conspicuously” display the card’s expiration date and note any fees that could be assessed for not using the card.
One House Democrat after another rose to condemn the bill.
“This is a bad piece of legislation,” Rep. Douglas Dean (D-Atlanta) said. “For God’s sake, I hope the consumers of this state know what we’re about to do to them.”
The problem, Dean and other Democratic colleagues contended, is that if consumers do not use the gift cards before they expire they will be charged a fee.
“What kind of fools do we think the consumers in this state are?” he asked. “They’re not crazy … Join me in voting this bill down.”
Rep. Virgil Fludd (D-Fayetteville) agreed.
“This bill does nothing for consumers,” Fludd said. “It’s a classic idea of a good idea that has gone severely bad.”
Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) called SB 13 “the weakest consumer protection bill on gift cards in the United States of America. Do we want to acknowledge the political shrewdness of passing consumer protection legislation when you don’t protect consumers?”
Oliver made a motion to table the bill until next year, so it could be improved.
Her motion passed by an 86-78 vote with cheers going up throughout the chamber.
But Graves asked the vote to table the bill be reconsidered. This time, he won by an 85-83 vote.
The House then voted 100-66 to approve the gift card bill, which was approved by the Senate on March 3.
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