Multiple Canadian businesses listed on U.S.-based 'gift card' site without permission

Saskatchewan Wine grapes grow on a vine inside a greenhouse at Over the Hill Orchards and Winery near Lumsden, Sask. The winery's owners were dismayed to find their company listed on a U.S.-based gifting site without permission.(Adam Bent/CBC) In Canada, gift card sales are regulated at the provincial and federal level. While Giftly says it does not sell gift cards and tries to make it clear to consumers it sells an alternative product, the words 'gift card' appears multiple times on its website.(CBC) Regina business Italian Star Deli posted on Instagram after discovering their name and logo on Giftly without permission.(Italians Star Deli/Instagram) CBC found multiple Canada-based businesses listed on Giftly, including Toronto locations for chains like 241 Pizza, Toronto's public transit system and Regina’s Cornwall Centre mall. The company says Canadian businesses are not intentionally listed and Giftly does not operate in Canada.(CBC News) Multiple Canadian businesses, including Sask. winery, listed on U.S.-based 'gift card' site without permission CEO of U.S.-based Giftly says Canadian businesses were not intentionally listed on its site Amidst the busy holiday shopping season, multiple independent Saskatchewan businesses discovered they were listed on a U.S.-based gift website without permission or notice. Sylvia Kreutzer and her husband Dean have owned Over the Hill Orchards and Winery in Lumsden, Sask. - roughly 28 kilometres northwest of Regina - for more than 25 years. She says the pair have worked hard to build their name and reputation within Saskatchewan. The winery does not use third-party advertising and carefully chooses who to go into business with, prioritizing local partnerships. Learning their business was listed on U.S.-based Giftly’s website without consent was a “gut punch,” Kreutzer said. “These people just used our name and used our company for their own marketing purposes,” she said. The words "gift card" appear multiple times on Giftly’s site, but CEO and founder Timothy Bentley says the company does not sell merchant gift cards. Instead, “Giftly is a person-to-person gifting platform,” Bentley said. Recipients receive the money directly, “along with a suggestion” of where to spend it, and pay like regular customers if they chose to go to a suggested business, he said. Giftly charges a processing fee for sales, but the money sent to recipients never “expires.” Kreutzer said she was worried her customers could be “taken advantage of” by the platform or potentially lose money, thinking they were purchasing a gift card that could be redeemed at their winery through Giftly. “That wasn’t something that was distributed by us and we have no format for recourse on this,” she said. The winery does sell gift cards, but only over the phone or in-person at the orchard, delivering or mailing the paper gift cards directly to recipients. Over the Hill Orchards and Winery was removed from Giftly upon request, but Kreutzer said they were left “completely disappointed” by the whole process and never told if Giftly sold products linked to their name. “We would be crushed to disappoint some of our very loyal customers,”...

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