Political Quotes

“as consumers shop for the holidays, more and more consumers are buying, giving, and receiving gift cards. By one estimate, Americans spent over $100 billion on gift cards in the 2011 holiday shopping season, and that nearly $2 billion of that value went unused. Today I am introducing legislation to help substantially remedy that problem and to ensure that consumers receive the full value that is stored on their gift cards. Whether it is a bankrupt company that refuses to honor a gift certificate, a gift card with hidden fees that slowly withers down to nothing, or a ``promotional'' gift card that expires in the virtual blink of an eye, consumers in Connecticut and across the nation are in danger of seeing the value of their gift cards disappear. The Gift Card Consumer Protection Act will stop these abusive practices. This bill uses as a model or blueprint the Connecticut law that I advocated and helped write while serving as Attorney General, but it adds to protections provided by that state law and others. This new measure enhances and expands gift card safeguards, particularly when gift card sellers become legally insolvent and seek bankruptcy status. It will add strong new protections for consumers when a company goes bankrupt. Under this bill, a company that files for bankruptcy must immediately stop selling its gift cards and is required to honor existing gift cards until it goes out of business.…”