Customer, do you have a Starbucks Card? I'll credit the difference.
The amount credited to Starbucks Cards from leftover balances after purchasing items with Starbucks e-gift cards has approached 50 billion won. Some argue that, as with amount-type gift certificates, when 60% or more of the face value is used, the remaining balance should be returned in cash. Starbucks says that although e-gift cards were originally for specific items only, it has compensated customers as much as possible.
According to data submitted by the Fair Trade Commission to the office of National Policy Committee member Lee Jeong-mun of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 10th, the amount Starbucks returned to customers by crediting the difference from digital gift cards to card balances (Starbucks points) from December 2023 to August this year totaled 48.477 billion won. The amount of credits has been increasing every year. The credited amount in Aug. was 2.856 billion won, up 24.2% from the same month a year earlier.
Until December 2023, Starbucks blocked the purchase of items priced lower than the voucher value. For example, if a customer tried to buy a 4,700-won iced Americano with a 6,500-won Frappuccino mobile coupon, the customer had to purchase additional items totaling at least the 1,800-won difference. If the selected item cost more than the difference, additional payment was required.
Amid criticism that the digital voucher system forces customers to spend more, Starbucks adopted a policy two years ago to credit the difference to the customer's card when 60% or more of the voucher amount is used. For customers without a Starbucks Card, it issues an anonymous Starbucks Card and returns the difference on it.
It is not illegal for Starbucks to credit the difference from digital gift certificates to its own card like this. That is because there is no relevant regulation. New-type gift certificates such as mobile vouchers are governed by the Fair Trade Commission's Standard Terms and Conditions for New-type Gift Certificates. The standard terms classify new-type gift certificates into item-type (service-providing type) and amount-type. An Americano coffee coupon is an item-type, while a 30,000-won Starbucks certificate is an amount-type. The standard terms set different refund procedures depending on the type of new-type gift certificate.
Under the standard terms, if a customer uses 60% or more of an amount-type certificate and requests the remaining balance to be returned, corporations must comply. But there is no such rule for item-type certificates. Cases where corporations must return an item-type voucher are when force majeure or defects in the certificate itself make it impossible to provide the item, or when the company reduces the places where the digital coupon can be used. Under the standard terms, Starbucks is not required to return the difference from item-type vouchers as card credit.
The standard terms treat item-type gift vouchers as a claim to a specific item. While consumers perceive a 4,700-won Americano coupon as a 4,700-won gift certificate, the terms view it as an obligation on corporations to provide an Americano. Therefore, unlike amount-type certificates, there is no rule requiring the return of the difference when a certain percentage of the voucher's value is used.
The Fair Trade Commission said, "If item-type certificates are treated the same as amount-type gift vouchers, smaller businesses may be unable to handle refund requests," adding, "If the refund method for item-type certificates is standardized to match amount-type certificates, unforeseen problems may arise during standardization." Unlike Starbucks, where all stores are directly managed, most franchises mix company-owned stores and franchise stores, and the measure takes that into account.
Starbucks also said, "In principle, item-type vouchers can only be exchanged for specific products, so cash refunds are not possible, but to improve consumer convenience, since December 2023 Starbucks has also been crediting item-type balances to Starbucks Cards," adding, "After the balance is credited to a Starbucks Card, if 60% or more of the remaining balance is used, we return cash at the customer's request."
On this, Rep. Lee Jeong-mun said, "It is unfair that consumers cannot freely exercise their rights to the remaining balance after using a digital gift voucher received as a gift," adding, "The terms and conditions need to be updated so consumers are not inconvenienced."