Duterte approves non-expiry act for gift checks

President Rodrigo Duterte has recently approved a law allowing all gift checks to not have expirations.

Republic Act 10962, or the Gift Check Act of 2017, disallows companies and businesses to issue gift check with expiry dates.

The reasoning behind the law is so that consumers will not be robbed of the value of their money - something that is lost once gift checks are not used simply because it was not consumed before a certain date.

The law says that all gift checks, along with certificates may it be in the for of paper, card, code or any other devices, must still retain the value that they had when they were released or given.

Here is the list of things businesses are banned from doing:

issue gift checks with expiration dates
to create and impose an expiry date on gift checks
not accepting unused value, credit, or balances in a check

Along with the law comes the punishment of violators having to pay a fine between P50,000 to P1 million.

The second offense involves a suspension of issuing gift checks for 3 months, along with the fine. The third offense will disallow the business to issue any checks at all, along with paying the fine.

However, it is only gift checks that are included in the law. Coupons and vouchers for discounts are not included, along with checks issued specifically to those under loyalty, rewards or promotional programs - all of which will be determined by the Department of Trade and Industry.

This law is not just meant to protect consumers, but businesses as well. Businesses are not forced to honor mutilated or defaced checks, along with honoring lost checks.