SB1809

What is prohibited: with intent to harm or defraud, a person may not acquire or keep a gift card, its magnetic-strip or chip data, or its redemption information without the consent of the cardholder, issuer or seller; alter or tamper with a card or its packaging; possess, transport, use or attempt to use covered cards or data to obtain value while knowing the card is counterfeit or the material was obtained without consent; or bring an unactivated card into a gift-card retailer and place or try to place it on a display to entice customers to buy it. “Gift card” includes prepaid cards, codes and devices, whether activated or inactivated; cardholders include purchasers and recipients of physical or virtual cards. Counterfeits include falsely attributed issuers and specified alterations or mismatches in card data, account information, images or codes. Final law, Section 32.56(a)–(b).

The three-item presumption is not automatic guilt: possession of three or more gift cards, counterfeit cards or digital imprints—or redemption information from three or more cards—creates a rebuttable presumption of lack of consent. It does not presume the separate intent to harm or defraud. The presumption excludes businesses, other commercial entities and government agencies engaged in activity that does not violate Texas penal law. Under the general criminal-presumption rules, the jury is not compelled to accept the inference; triggering facts and the other offense elements must still be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Final law, subsections (c)–(d); Criminal-presumption safeguards.

Penalty bands depend on quantity, not dollar balance: subsection (e) lists unactivated gift cards, counterfeit gift cards, digital imprints and gift-card redemption information. Conduct involving fewer than five specified items is a state-jail felony; 5–9 is third-degree; 10–49 is second-degree; 50 or more is first-degree. The list’s reference to unactivated cards should not be rewritten as a dollar-loss test or a rule making any collection of ordinary activated cards a felony. The offense conduct and required intent still matter. The ordinary confinement ranges are 180 days–2 years for a state-jail felony, 2–10 years for third-degree, 2–20 years for second-degree, and 5–99 years or life for first-degree; fines up to $10,000 are also possible. Other sentencing rules can affect an individual case. Final law; State-jail range; Third-degree range; Second-degree range; First-degree range.

Other charges and legislative changes: the final statute expressly permits prosecution under this section, another applicable law, or both. The introduced bill instead used dollar-value tiers ranging from a Class C misdemeanor below $100 to first-degree felony at $300,000. The Senate substitute replaced those tiers with the item-count felony bands, added counterfeits, digital imprints, packaging tampering and retail-display planting, and added the consent presumption, its exception and the multiple-prosecution provision. The Senate-passed, House committee and enrolled operative texts match the substitute. No amendments are listed in the official amendment index. Introduced; Senate substitute; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

The law gives prosecutors a specific tool against schemes involving stolen card information, altered packaging and fraudulent retail placement, including conduct before a card is activated. Consumers and sellers may benefit from deterrence, but the bill does not guarantee reimbursement for drained cards or require merchants to refund every loss. Defendants face felony exposure based on item counts even when the statute does not require a specified dollar loss. Final law.

The March 31 introduced and April 3 Senate-substitute fiscal notes and criminal-justice impact statements say fiscal and correctional effects cannot be determined because data on the prohibited conduct are lacking. They warn that new offenses may increase state and local supervision or confinement demands; any increase in court-cost revenue is also indeterminate. The introduced estimates describe the superseded value-based penalties, while the substitute documents describe the final quantity-based approach. The act makes no appropriation and contains no quantified estimate of fraud prevented. Introduced fiscal note; Substitute fiscal note; Introduced justice-impact statement; Substitute justice-impact statement.