A New Jersey Gift Card Update

Regular readers (Hi Mom!) know that we've been following the progress of New Jersey's recent gift card legislation from the State Assembly, to the Treasury Department, and, ultimately, to the courts.  When we last left our story, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit enjoined (in English, temporarily suspended) application of parts of the new law, pending a decision by that Court.  That case has been argued, and is currently under consideration by the court -- meaning that a decision can come at any time.  Of course, the timing of the ruling could be important because the holidays are a particularly busy time for gift card sellers.

According to a recent article in NJ Biz, the President of the NJ Retail Merchants Association (one of the plaintiffs in the underlying lawsuit) has gone on record indicating that he does not expect the challenged gift card laws to be in force during the holiday shopping season.  (For detail as to which parts of the law were enjoined, see here).

In other news, some members of the New Jersey Assembly have a bill pending that would reverse all of the changes enacted as part of the 2010 gift card law.  Before anyone gets too excited, however, we note that the bill has been pending for more than a year.

We will continue to follow the Garden State saga.

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