Gift Certificate: Problem of Uncertainty of Legal Nature

Abstract

Currently, there is no clear definition of the legal nature of a gift certificate in Russian law, which is very popular among consumers in retail sales. Due to the fact that the civil law does not regulate the status of a gift certificate, the law enforcement practice does not contain a single approach and does not differ in uniformity, which creates a problem in the protection of consumer rights. The purpose of this article is to analyze the judicial practice and position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the legal nature of gift certificates, as well as, based on the experience of leading states on this issue, to propose a solution taking into account the specifics of the Russian legal system. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: 1) consider the concept of a gift certificate; 2) analyze the positions that determine the function of a gift certificate on the example of foreign experience, individual contracts and judicial practice; 3) analysis of the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the recognition of a gift certificate as a form of advance payment; 4) establishment of a range of problems related to the legal nature of the gift certificate and the issues arising from it, as well as putting forward its position on solving this problem. When writing this article, such methods of scientific research as the system method, formal-legal and comparative-legal methods, as well as methods of synthesis, analysis, induction and deduction were used. The results of this research were the range of issues to determine the legal nature of a gift certificate and hotel developed by the authors for solving problems, taking account of the specific characteristics of gift certificates.