Toys R Us Gift Cards Class Action Could Get Second Wind

A group of consumers whose class action lawsuit against Toys R Us was previously dismissed have asked a California court to revive their case, arguing that they have a legitimate grievance.

Plaintiffs had argued that this constituted misleading language, making it appear that the cards were not easily redeemable as cash.

The original case was found to have no evidence in 2011, and dealt with whether gift cards under $10 could be redeemed as cash. In 2007, California introduced a law requiring stores to redeem any gift card under $10 to do just this. Subsequently, Toys R Us changed the written guidelines on the backs of cards to read “not redeemable for cash, except as required by law.” Plaintiffs had argued that this constituted misleading language, making it appear that the cards were not easily redeemable as cash. The original case was denied by Judge Kenneth R. Freeman of the Los Angeles County Superior Court after lawyers for the toy store argued that there was no evidence that anyone had been misled.

Now, plaintiffs say the trial court erroneously banned them from adding a class representative who bought such cards. Two class representatives from the original case possessed cards that pre-dated the change in the law or didn’t ask for cash out of habit, and attempted to amend the lawsuit only after Judge Freeman’s decision in favor of Toys R Us.

Plaintiffs previously offered a survey of consumers showing that 90% of those asked did believe that buying something with gift cards was their only option. However, following a bench trial the court ruled that it was not the company’s responsibility to inform people of their legal rights – only to comply with any requests, which Toys R Us did.

The case is currently under submission to the appellate court as Cindy Maxwell et al. v. Toys R Us — Delaware Inc., case number B237422, in the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, Division Three.