Dive Brief:

• Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and his office Thursday filed a suit against RadioShack on the behalf of owners of unused gift cards.

• RadioShack stopped honoring gift cards in March and now says it has no way of knowing who owns what cards.

• However, holders of unredeemed cards can file a claim in bankruptcy court to try to redeem their value; Paxton office wants the court to rule that Texas and other states can do that on consumers’ behalf.

Dive Insight:

The Texas attorney general’s office was instrumental in helping limit RadioShack’s sale of customer data. Now the attorneys there are back on the case on the consumers’ behalf, in an effort to ensure that any chance to redeem unused gift cards is pursued.

And the attorney general’s office is quite skeptical of RadioShack’s assertion that it has no way of redeeming the cards.

“However, Texas respectfully contends that such an assertion must be viewed with some skepticism in light of the fact that the defendants maintain extensive data regarding their customers’ purchases,” the lawsuit says. “The defendants likely know the names, mailing addresses, and email addresses of at least some of the purchasers if not the holders.”