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I bought an Amazon gift card, and I would like to sell it to my friend. However Amazon Gift Card Terms and Conditions §2 states:

Gift Cards cannot be reloaded, resold, transferred for value or redeemed for cash, except to the extent required by law.

Is there a a law that will allow me to resell my gift card? Or would I be violating the terms that I agreed to when I purchased it?

Doug
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    Good question - my initial response would have been that you are in breach of the agreement, but on second thought I suspect you could legally do this - at least assuming you are in America - because of the "First Sale Doctrine". – davidgo Jul 27 '16 at 03:18
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    First Sale Doctrine is about copyright. – user6726 Jul 29 '16 at 00:09
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    "Except to the extent required by law". Now consider that many gift cards are purchased and shortly passed on as presents. If purchaser and end user had to be the same, that would be very bad for business. – gnasher729 Jan 12 '23 at 09:49
  • Laws don't "allow" you to do anything, they only restrict. Additionally, terms and conditions in a private transaction are not law. To gnasher's point, gift cards are a staple of gift giving. I wouldn't lose any sleep over taking a little cash for one. The terms are nothing more than corporate blustering to dissuade large scale resale for profit. – Michael Hall Jan 12 '23 at 22:14
  • @gnasher729 There's a difference between giving someone a gift card and selling it. It would be hard to argue that a gift card cannot be given, but the OP wants to sell it, which Amazon appears to be trying to prevent. Of course in practice it would be hard for Amazon to detect if a card had been sold rather than given, and so it is unlikely any action would be taken in this case, but the question is about the law not the practicalities. – Stuart F Jan 13 '23 at 15:57

1 Answers1

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At the federal level, gift cards seem to be treated as a special case of electronic fund transfer. 15 U.S. Code § 1693l–1 and the corresponding regulations presently regulate disclosure of fees and expiration, and do not directly say anything about sale of such a card. There might be relevant state laws, though Washington state laws mostly mirror the federal law (also allowing issuing a card with an expiration date if given for no value to a charitable organization). You can actually get your last $5 back in cash in Washington per RCW 19.240.020.

A gift card / certificate isn't a "thing" in the way that an apple, hammer or table is, it's a contractual relationship. If you own a thing, you can freely re-sell it to whoever you want (assuming there isn't an express statutory prohibition against the sale of the thing). You cannot universally sell (assign) a contract right – there is a default preference that you should be able to, but Amazon has in this case said "No, you can't".

user6726
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    I would agree with their being a contractual relationship if the gift card were purchased under an individual's name. Absent that though, how is a gift card any different from exchanging any other transaction medium? Consider for example, poker chips: If you are leaving a casino and don't want to stand in line to cash out, is it a contractual violation to sell or give your last few chips to a friend? – Michael Hall Jan 12 '23 at 22:01