J.L. GOODMAN v. AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC. ("AMEX")

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AMENDED COMPLAINT

PlaintiffJ.L. Goodman, on behalf ofherselfand all others similarly situated, alleges the following on information and belief:

Preliminary Statement

1. This action is brought for a refund ofmoney improperly taken from plaintiff and other members of the putative Class by defendant American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. ("Amex") and for other relief in connection with its sale ofAmerican Express Gift Cards (the "Gift Cards").

2. The Gift Cards are pre-paid credit card-like plastic cards issued by Amex in various values. Such Gift Cards are typically sold to the public through point-of-sale displays at supermarkets and other retail outlets.

Parties

3. Plaintiff is a citizen of the State of New York with her residence in the Eastern District of New York.

4. The members of the Class are citizens of most if not all of the United States.

5. Defendant Amex is a corporation which sells a wide variety of credit, financial and travel-related products and services. It is incorporated in New York.

Jurisdiction and Venue

6. Plaintiff is a resident and citizen of the State of New York. Amex is deemed to be acitizen ofthe State ofNew York, where it is incorporated. Although it actively conducts business within this District, its principal place of business is in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

7. Numerous members of the putative Class are residents of this District. More than 2/3 of the members ofthe putative Class are domiciled outside the State of New York.

8. Numerous members of the putative Class have purchased Amex Gift Cards from Amex within this District.

9. Numerous members of the Class have used and/or attempted to use Amex Gift Cards within this District.

10. This Court has diversity jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, in that this is a class action for damages in an amount in excess of $5 Million exclusive of interest or costs, and members of the Class defined below are citizens of states different from those of defendant.

The Gift Cards

11. Amex sells, through various retail outlets, Gift Cards which are displayed in ways which trade upon the long-term reputation and legitimacy of American Express Travelers' Cheques and American Express Cards. The Gift Cards, which are intended to be purchased as gifts and/or for use by children, are contained in sealed "envelopes" hanging upon point-of-sale display units (the "Sealed Envelopes").

12. Plaintiff purchased a Sealed Envelope believed by her to contain a $100 face value Gift Card sometime in or about September 2006 at the King Kullen supermarket in St. James, New York, within this District.

13. The gift cards are marketed as gifts, intended to be given as gifts, and plaintiff in fact gave the Gift Card which she purchased to her daughter-in-law, Robin London.

14. On information and belief, the Sealed Envelope stated that it was or contained a Gift Card issued by Amex.

15. On information and belief, Amex instructs merchants that they are not to sell any Gift Card if the Sealed Envelope has been opened. This information is given to consumers with a printed "warning" which tells consumers in sum and substance that they cannot open the envelope before they pay for the Gift Card.

16. Plaintiff paid $100 plus $4.95 for a Gift Card and gave it as a gift to her daughterin- law, Robin London ("Robin"), who was and is a third-party beneficiary of the contractual relationship between plaintiff and Amex.

17. After Robin used $ 97.25 of the face value of her Gift Card, there remained a purportedly available balance of $ 2.75.

18. Despite repeated attempts, no retailer or other entity which accepted Gift Cards or Amex Cards for payment (the "Retailers") would accept the Gift Card purchased by Plaintiff for Robin London as partial payment of the amount due in a transaction, with the balance to be paid in cash (the "Retailers' Policy").

19. Ultimately, the purportedly available balance on the Amex Card purchased by plaintiff for Robin was wiped out by Amex's charge against such balance of$2.00 per month after the first 12 months following purchase. The Amex Card purchased by plaintiff is now worthless, the available balance having been rendered unusable by Amex as a result of its conversion of such balance through subsequent charges of $2.00 per month.

20. Amex never disclosed to members of the Class that Retailers would not accept the Amex Gift Cards uniformly as partial payment for goods and services, which policy Amex acquiesced in and/or promoted and/or used other means and devices to render the Gift Card cash balances only partially usable.

21. In effect, many balances on Gift Cards are rendered worthless to consumers or holders of the Gift Cards because retailers generally refuse to accept such balances in a "Split Tender Transaction" where payment is made partially with the Gift Card and partially with cash or a credit card.

22. In order to insure that remaining balances in Gift Cards will remain unused until they can be consumed by Amex's $2/month charge, Amex also charges a $10 "check-issuance fee" to pay the remaining available balance on a Gift Card to the owner of the Gift Card.

23. Amex has long been aware that retailers will not uniformly accept Gift Cards for "Split Tender Transactions" and has not required them to do so as part of its contractual arrangement with such retailers.

24. Amex benefits from the retailers' refusal to accept "Split Tender Transactions", because it gets to keep the unused balance on Gift Cards which consumers are unable to use.

25. As a result of the retailers' refusal to accept the Gift Card as partial payment of the amount due for goods and services, plaintiff and other members of the Class were unable to use or obtain the full value of the Gift Cards purchased and/or received by them.

26. Each member of the Class was victimized by Amex's practices as described herein in that each member of the Class lost part of the value ofthe Gift Cards purchased by or received by them.

27. Plaintiff and the members of the Class were either denied the full value of the Gift Cards purchased and/or were denied the timely use of them by Amex's failure to insure that all Gift Cards were accepted for payment no matter what unused value remained thereupon.

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