Legal Risks and Rewards of Gift Card and Loyalty Programs

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Gift cards and loyalty programs are notoriously heavily regulated, but their popularity with consumers often makes them an important part of a seller’s marketing plan. Companies running such programs, however, must stay up to date on regulatory, legislative, and litigation developments affecting these promotional mechanisms -and there has been a particularly high volume of such developments in 2024. Join Melissa Landau Steinman, Kelly Bastide, Chris Boone, and Jay Prapaisilp from Venable LLP for a lively discussion of the laws regulating gift cards and loyalty programs and the risks and “rewards” of offering them.

In particular, we will discuss the significant recent developments in the laws relating to gift cards and loyalty programs, including:

New federal and state laws regarding gift card scams, including new posting and secure packaging requirements enacted by Maryland, New Jersey, and New York (as well as the extension of the minimum validity period in New York)
Developments in unclaimed property law relevant to gift cards and merchandise credits
Updates in state privacy laws relevant to loyalty programs
The Credit Card Competition Act, the investigation of airline programs announced by the Department of Transportation the first week in September, the CFPB’s “Issue Spotlight” on loyalty programs, and other federal activities in this area
What happens when gift cards, loyalty programs, and similar promotions integrate cutting-edge technologies like crypto, NFTs, or virtual currency
Other “edge” cases and questions that brands and clients encounter in this area