Business ProfileforH&M

The following describes a government action that has been resolved by either a settlement or a decision by a court or administrative agency. If the matter is being appealed, it will be noted below.

On 5/19/2022l, the New York Attorney's Office announced that it had recovered $36 million from popular fashion retailer H&M for unlawfully keeping millions of dollars in unused gift cards. For years, H&M withheld unused balances on gift cards that should have been transferred to the Office of Unclaimed Funds, which is overseen by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s Office. H&M repeatedly lied to the state about its failure to transfer the unused gift card balances and falsely claimed that an out-of-state company was handling its gift cards business. As part of today’s agreement, H&M will pay a penalty for its wrongdoing and transfer the money owed to the state’s Abandoned Property Fund.

Like many retailers, H&M sells gift cards for use in its retail and online stores. Customers redeem the balances on the cards in exchange for clothing and other merchandise from H&M. Every year, some portion of H&M’s gift cards go unused by consumers, resulting in an unredeemed balance on the cards — money that H&M has received in payment for the cards, but has not given value for in merchandise. After five years of inactivity, New York law requires gift card issuers to turn over unused balances on gift cards to the state’s Abandoned Property Fund.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) opened an investigation into H&M after a whistleblower filed a lawsuit under the New York False Claims Act, which allows people to file civil actions on behalf of the government and share in any recovery. The OAG’s investigation found that H&M knew that it was required to transfer millions of dollars in unredeemed gift card balances to the Abandoned Property Fund but did not do so for years. Instead, H&M concealed its failure to comply with the law.

After H&M became aware in 2008 that it would have to transfer the unredeemed balances to the Abandoned Property Fund, it entered into a contract with an out-of-state company (Company A) that gave the false impression that Company A would conduct H&M’s gift card business. However, Company A did not take over the gift-card business. Instead, H&M continued to run that business itself — and the money from the sale of gift cards never left its accounts.

H&M falsely told the state that its gift card balances had been transferred to the company with which it contracted. However, H&M continued to retain millions of dollars of unredeemed gift card balances in its bank accounts, manufacture and sell gift cards, and remained responsible for honoring its gift cards. In addition, H&M caused a letter to be submitted to the state falsely stating that Company A had “paid out tens of millions of dollars” on H&M’s gift cards, even though H&M knew that no such payments had been made.

In November 2011, the state again asked H&M about its gift-card business, and H&M again caused false statements to be made to the state. Specifically, the state was told that H&M’s unused gift card balances had been transferred to an out-of-state entity that had no transfer obligation to New York when, in fact, H&M retained millions of dollars in unredeemed gift card balances and remained responsible for honoring its gift cards.

This agreement resolves allegations that H&M knowingly made false statements to DiNapoli’s office to avoid turning over the unused balances on gift cards to the Abandoned Property Fund. As part of the agreement, H&M will pay more than $28 million to the state, of which more than $18 million will go to the Abandoned Property Fund for unredeemed balances on H&M gift cards sold before 2015. A whistleblower will receive $7.74 million for bringing H&M’s misconduct to light.

Consumers who have unused funds in gift cards issued by H&M between 2004 and 2014 can either use the card at H&M, if they still have the physical card, or file a claim for the unredeemed balance with the Comptroller's Office of Unclaimed Funds: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/unclaimed-funds