I’ve read the latest guidelines that Folksy issued recently, regarding gift vouchers and I’m uncertain what to do. I already had a listing for a gift voucher but I’ve taken it from view as the directive in your information piece is that I need to have either no expiry date or an expiry date of at least 5 years and mine was much less. THe Consumer Protection (Gift Vouchers) Act 2019 was quoted. However, when I went to search for this Act, I could only find it in reference to Ireland, not the UK. I could only find a reference to this potential Act being debated in the UK but not necessarily passed. Can you clarify please, have I read it wrongly?
Just found this information
There is no gift vouchers expiry date law in the UK . That means as a company wanting to use gift vouchers to sell your products, services and experiences you can determine your voucher validity period.
Surely this means we should be able to set our own expiry date. 5 years is way too long. Just checked vouchers I had recently expiry 1 or 2 years.
The law quoted is only valid in Southern Ireland not UK England, Scotland and Wales.
If 5 years will not be adding to my shop as way too long.
Additional information from March 2021 for UK mainland here
They mention can be anything from 3 months, this follows with the UK mainland guidelines.
Yes I’d read this too and thought that if Which? haven’t mentioned it, it can’t be relevant to anybody else but Ireland who make their own rules. I think Folksy have made a mistake in thinking that it was a UK act and didn’t see the .ie at the end of the google entry perhaps?
I’m going to reinstate my gift voucher back to visible for sale now because I think I fulfill the UK legal requirements. Hopefully Folksy will issue an amendment to the instruction email about gift vouchers.
I’m so so sorry for the confusion. This is totally my fault.
@SilvanaJewellery @Caroleecrafts There are no UK laws covering how long a gift voucher should last.
The advice is generally that an ethical business should set a reasonable period in which the voucher can be redeemed, and that the expiry date (if you want to add one) should be clearly stated on both the certificate and the listing.
I have updated the article now - 3 ways to maximise last-minute sales on Folksy this Christmas | Folksy Blog
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Thanks Camilla, easy mistake to make. I’ve been caught out before with alternative Irish Acts that look like ours because they come up on a google search and look similar to ours.