Home Depot pays $750,000 for violating gift card law after investigation by Sonoma County DA and three other counties

Home Depot has to pay $750,000 in damages and make changes to its registers and employee training after an investigation by four California counties found it wasn’t honoring the state law around gift cards.

Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez announced Friday that Home Depot had settled after her office, along with counterparts in Contra Costa, Ventura and Los Angeles counties brought a civil enforcement action against the company. The retailer has nine North Bay stores, in Sonoma, Solano, Napa, Marin and Mendocino counties.

In California, shoppers don’t need to hunt for small dollar items when a gift card gets low, or leave a few bucks unspent on the card to avoid that hassle. Under law, stores must redeem in cash a gift card with a value of less than $10. But an investigation by the four county district attorney offices found Home Depot didn’t honor those requests when made in multiple stores.

The state law also forbids gift cards from having an expiration date.

Along with the monetary penalty, Home Depot is required to ensure future compliance with the law at its stores by reprogramming point-of-sale registers, training staff and posting signs about the ability to redeem the dwindling balances of gift cards.

“Our office seeks to ensure that businesses comply with laws that are enacted to protect consumers,” Rodriguez said in the statement. “It is important the consumers understand that they have the right to receive cash payment of balances on gift cards under ten dollars ($10).”

The $750,000 does not go to reimburse consumers with unpaid gift cards but will instead cover the DA offices’ investigative costs and serve as a civil penalty to the counties, according to the business publication PaymentsJournal.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @AndrewGraham88