A gift voucher sold by an Australian cafe or restaurant must stay redeemable for at least 3 years from the day you sell it, and printing a shorter expiry does not shorten it: the law resets the date to three years anyway.
Skai Solutions read the Act rather than the summaries, because the summaries stop at the three year rule and the three year rule is not the part that costs money. Three other rules sit beside it in the same four sections of the Australian Consumer Law, each one carrying its own penalty, and the one most cafes trip is not the expiry date at all. Here is the whole of Division 3A in plain terms, with the section numbers so you can check every line against the statute yourself.
Section 99B(1) of the Australian Consumer Law says a person must not, in trade or commerce, supply a gift card to a consumer if the day it ceases to be redeemable is earlier than three years after the day of supply. The wording is in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Part 3-2, Division 3A, compilation registered 16 September 2026.
Two definitions decide whether it applies to you, and both are wider than operators expect. Section 99A says a gift card is an article, "whether in physical or electronic form", that is of a kind commonly known as a gift card or gift voucher and is redeemable for goods or services. A printed voucher in your till, a numbered card behind the counter and a voucher you email as a PDF are all the same thing to the Act. The rules also apply nationally. The Australian Consumer Law is one law applied in every state and territory, so there is no separate New South Wales, Queensland or Victorian gift voucher expiry rule to look up. The answer is the same in Perth as it is in Sydney.
The start date matters if you have old stock. Section 302 of the same Schedule says the gift card amendments "apply to gift cards supplied on or after 1 November 2019". A voucher you sold in 2018 is governed by whatever its own terms said. Everything sold since is governed by this.
This is the part that is worth the whole page, and it is the part nobody tells cafes.
Section 99B(2) says that if a gift card is supplied with a cease date earlier than three years after supply, "the day that the gift card ceases to be redeemable is taken to be 3 years after the day of that supply". The law does not just penalise the short expiry. It overwrites it. A voucher you printed with a twelve month expiry and sold last winter is legally redeemable until the winter after next, whatever the voucher says.
Section 99F(1) closes the door from the other side: a term or condition of a gift card is void if it purports to reduce the redeemable period to less than three years, or to allow a fee after supply. And section 99B(3) makes clear that the automatic extension in 99B(2) "does not affect a person's liability" for having contravened 99B(1) in the first place. So the short expiry is unenforceable, and you are still exposed for having printed it.
The practical consequence is a liability most venues do not know they carry. Every non-compliant voucher sold in the last three years is still live. If you have been selling vouchers with a six or twelve month expiry and turning people away at the counter when they come in late, you have been refusing to honour something the law says is still valid. That is the exposure, and it is bigger than the fine.
Section 99C requires that one of five things appears prominently on the gift card. Not in the terms on the back, not on a website. Prominently, on the card. The five permitted forms are:
Read the third and fourth options again, because they are the ones that solve the problem for a small venue. You do not have to date-stamp an expiry on every voucher at the moment of sale. You can print "valid for 3 years from the date of purchase" on the voucher and write the sale date on it. That is compliant, it needs no new stationery, and it removes the risk of a staff member writing a shorter date by hand. The fifth option, no expiry at all, is also perfectly legal and is the simplest thing a cafe can do.
No. Two separate sections cover it and both are absolute.
Section 99D(1) says you must not supply a gift card whose terms allow or require the payment of a post-supply fee. Section 99D(2) defines a post-supply fee as "a fee or charge payable in relation to a gift card after it is supplied to a consumer", other than kinds specified in the regulations. Section 99E goes further and says you must not demand or receive one, whether or not your terms mentioned it. Section 99F(1) makes any such term void.
So an inactivity fee, a monthly administration fee, a balance-reissue fee and a charge to replace a lost card are all off the table. Taking a booking deposit is a different thing entirely, and the rules for that are on our page covering restaurant no show fees. What is not off the table is declining to give cash change on a partly used voucher, or refusing to redeem a voucher for something you do not sell. The Act governs fees and expiry, not your menu.
Read the next sentence carefully, because the unit matters more than the amount.
Section 224 sets the civil penalty ceiling for contraventions of 99B(1), 99C, 99D(1), 99E and 99F(2) at A$30,000 for a body corporate and A$6,000 for anyone who is not a body corporate. The Act applies that ceiling "in respect of each act or omission". Each voucher supplied is an act. A print run of two hundred vouchers with a twelve month expiry is not one exposure, it is potentially two hundred, and the same conduct is separately a criminal offence under sections 191A to 191D at the same A$30,000 and A$6,000 amounts. Those offences are offences of strict liability, which means no intention needs to be proved. Not knowing the rule is not a defence to them.
| Conduct | Section | Company ceiling | Sole trader or partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expiry earlier than three years | 99B(1) and 191A | A$30,000 | A$6,000 |
| Expiry not shown prominently | 99C and 191B | A$30,000 | A$6,000 |
| Terms allowing a post-supply fee | 99D(1) and 191C | A$30,000 | A$6,000 |
| Demanding or receiving such a fee | 99E and 191D | A$30,000 | A$6,000 |
| Failing to keep void terms out of the conditions | 99F(2) | A$30,000 | A$6,000 |
Being straight about the odds, because a page that only quotes ceilings is not useful. The realistic outcome for a single cafe with a badly printed voucher is a complaint, a request to honour it, and the end of it. These ceilings are what deliberate or repeated conduct attracts across a chain, and the reason to know them is that they are per act, not per business. Two honest gaps as well: section 99G lets regulations limit how the Division applies, and section 99A lets regulations name kinds of article that are not gift cards, and we have not read those regulations. If your voucher is unusual, for instance a promotional card given away rather than sold, check them before relying on this page.
Four things, cheapest first, and none of them needs a lawyer.
If you want the neighbouring rules, the pricing side is on restaurant service charge rules and the payments side on the card surcharge ban. Both are the same Act, different divisions.
Vouchers create phone calls, and they create them at the worst time. "Is my voucher still valid" is a question that arrives during service, from someone holding a card with a date on it that the law has already overridden, and it is a question your floor staff should not have to argue about mid-shift. The same is true of the calls that follow a voucher sale: someone books the table they are spending it on.
That is the honest case for taking the phone off the floor, and the honest limit of it too. If your phone mostly carries supplier calls and general enquiries, a basic message-taking plan will serve you better than anything clever, and that is not us. Where an AI receptionist earns its keep is a venue whose phone rings hardest at exactly the hour nobody can pick it up. Ours answers on the first ring, quotes the voucher rule the same way every time, and takes the booking instead of taking a message. Setup is five days and you keep your existing number.
Fifteen minutes, your menu, your hardest order. Live in five days.
Book a Free DemoThe voucher sections are one corner of the same Act. For what the Consumer Law says when a customer wants their money back on a meal rather than a voucher, and why the sign on the wall carries a heavier penalty than the refund itself, see restaurant refund rules in Australia.
How long is a gift voucher valid for in Australia?
At least three years from the day it is sold. Section 99B(1) of the Australian Consumer Law prohibits supplying a gift card that ceases to be redeemable earlier than three years after supply, and section 99B(2) resets a shorter date to three years automatically. The rule applies to vouchers supplied on or after 1 November 2019.
Is a gift voucher expiry date legally enforceable if it is under three years?
No. Section 99F(1) makes a term void if it purports to reduce the period to less than three years, and section 99B(2) treats the cease date as three years after supply regardless of what is printed. A voucher sold with a twelve month expiry is still redeemable for three years.
Are gift voucher expiry rules different in NSW, Victoria or Queensland?
No. The Australian Consumer Law is a single law applied in every state and territory, so the three year minimum, the prominent display requirement and the fee ban are identical nationwide.
Can a cafe charge a fee on an unused gift voucher?
No. Section 99D prohibits terms that allow a post-supply fee, section 99E prohibits demanding or receiving one, and section 99F makes any such term void. That covers inactivity fees, administration fees and reissue fees.
What is the penalty for a non-compliant gift voucher in Australia?
Up to A$30,000 for a body corporate and A$6,000 for a sole trader or partner, per act or omission, under section 224 of the Australian Consumer Law. The same conduct is also a strict liability criminal offence under sections 191A to 191D at the same amounts. Because the unit is each voucher supplied, a single non-compliant print run can be many exposures.
How long does it take to set up Skai Solutions?
Five days from sign up to live calls. You keep your existing number and divert calls to the agent, and the divert can be switched on during service only, after hours only, or always.