The saga of the Administration of HMV in 2013 made headlines not only for the sorry state into which a once-great business had fallen, but also for the mess it made of deciding whether or not to accept vouchers during the Administration. I blogged about this here, here, here, and here. The legal issues were not entirely straightforward, and those posts tell a tale of me working them out in real time. I concluded that, for so long as the shops were trading normally, there was no legal basis for them to refuse to honour vouchers. On the one hand, Examiners (in Ireland) (but not Administrators, in England) have a limited power to get out of contracts, but only with the approval of the court. However, on the other hand, in a liquidation, liquidators can disclaim contracts – including vouchers; and even if they don’t disclaim them but decline to honour them, they would rank as unsecured creditors in the insolvency, leaving little practical redress.

Many of the issues with vouchers have been clarified by the Consumer Protection (Gift Vouchers) Act 2019 (also here), inserting a new Part 4A in to the Consumer Protection Act 2007 (also here), which effectively brings the issue within the remit of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).…

Read More »

The High Court has today approved a petition for the appointment of an interim Examiner to B&Q Ireland, a home improvement and garden centre retailer. A statement on the B&Q website explains:

During the examinership processs, it is anticipated that B&Q Ireland Ltd will continue to trade at all nine stores; all employees will be paid, and all pre-paid goods and services, including kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms and their installation, together with Gift Vouchers and Credit Notes will be honoured. Suppliers will be paid for goods and services supplied during the process. …

What about my credit note or gift voucher?
We are still honouring credit notes and gift vouchers throughout this process. We don’t want our customers to lose out.

Update (12 Feb 2013): the High Court has today confirmed the appointment; and it was confirmed to the court that all vouchers, credit notes and deposits will be honoured by the company throughout the examinership period.

This is a far more satisfactory approach than that taken in the context of HMV (see here, here and here). And the fact that B&Q can take this approach demonstrates that the Examinership process (or Administration, its UK equivalent) does not automatically preclude the company under the protection of the court from honouring vouchers.…

Read More »

According to TheJournal.ie, HMV stores in the UK are to start accepting vouchers again. Meanwhile, a sit-in by staff at some of HMV’s Irish stores came to an end over the weekend, as the Receiver confirmed that they would receive pay due to them; and, in a separate development, the Receiver also confirmed that the proceeds of a charity single would be paid. However, for so long as the Irish operation remains in an increasingly complex receivership and the shops are closed, there is no practical means by which to redeem vouchers, gift cards, and the like. But the UK operation is merely in Administration (equivalent to Examinership), and Sky News is reporting that the Administrators have bowed to public pressure, and have announced that gift cards and vouchers can be redeemed in stores from today (Tuesday). Update: calls from the Taoiseach on HMV to give their Irish customers the same rights as those in Britain to redeem vouchers seem to have fallen on deaf ears (in much the same way as calls to him to change the law in this regard have equally fallen on deaf ears, though some legislative changes might be afoot in the UK).…

Read More »

There have been many developments today in the HMV vouchers saga about which I blogged yesterday. I argued that HMV’s vouchers, tokens, gift cards, and the like, were valid, and that National Consumer Agency (the NCA) should have been vocal and active in support of consumers in possession of vouchers which HMV had been refusing to honour. Having monitored the situation yesterday, the NCA sprang into action this morning. They questioned the basis upon which gift vouchers, tokens, gift cards, and the like, were not honoured in HMV’s Irish shops yesterday; and they met with representatives of HMV. However, it was too late, and it was all for naught. HMV’s Irish shops did not open their doors this morning (the notice, right, was on the front door of HMV’s Grafton Street shop this morning). This meant – among other things – that it was not practically possible to redeem vouchers, whatever the legal position as to their validity. Then, it emerged during the day that the Irish operation was going into receivership (and not Examinership, the Irish equivalent of the Administration regime to which the UK operation is subject). This definitively means that vouchers are now effectively worthless, just like the claims of other contractual creditors (including the claim to the proceeds of a charity single).…

Read More »

The photo on the left, by Cian Ginty on Flickr, shows the HMV store on Grafton Street, Dublin, closed up on a Saturday night. I read the news today, oh boy, about how 300 Irish jobs are at risk as HMV enters Administration in the UK. None of the Irish media coverage that I have seen or heard contains anything on the formal fate of the Irish operation. It could be put into Examinership (which is the equivalent of the UK’s Administration regime); or, since it is a relatively small part of the total operation, and it is tightly bound to the UK business, the Irish operation might be left to trade normally while the UK administrators get on with things. In both the UK Administration regime and the Irish Examinership regime, the business seeks the protection of the court in a bid to put in place a scheme to allow the business to continue trading. If the bid is not successful, then HMV will cease trading, and the shutters will come down more permanently not only on the Grafton Street store but on all 236 of its stores after 92 years of trading.

It is being reported that

HMV’s administration means it can legally declare gift vouchers worthless, a blow for those who received one as a Christmas gift.

Read More »