Treasury is investigating whether Australia should scrap gift card expiry dates altogether

The federal government is giving businesses and consumers until the end of May to share their views on how gift card expiry dates should work in Australia, as part of a review on the regulation of gift certificates across the country.

In 2017, New South Wales moved to extend gift card expiry periods from one year to three years for all gift cards purchased in the state.

Retail groups have warned the extension could have cost businesses, but other players like Woolworths have jumped on the idea of changing the game, pledging in March to scrap expiry dates on all its cards across the country.

These moves have prompted Treasury to conduct a “regulatory impact assessment” for the world of gift cards, taking submissions before publishing a report outlining the possible fallout of three options: keeping things the same; moving all gift card expiry terms to a minimum of three years; or ditching expiry dates altogether.

“There is currently no uniform national regulation for the minimum length of time a gift card should last,” Treasury says in the initial impact statement report.

The aim of the research is to come up with a suggestion for a national standard for card expiry dates. Treasury currently prefers the option of having a minimum three-year expiry on all gift cards.

Submissions can be made through the Treasury website until May 30. 

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