What if you gift an app to someone who already owns that app?

You will lose out.

Apple don't let you know if someone has the App, because they can't check 100%.

You can gift an App to someone who does not even have iTunes installed and does not own a device to install an App on.

You can gift to someone using an email address that is not the address that they have used to set up their iTunes account.

You need to check before you purchase.

I'm not sure what else they can do.
As I explained you can gift music, movies, apps, etc to any email address you like.
Apple are unable to check then as they may not even be iTunes account holders.
Only if you provided Apple with the user iTunes Store ID would they be able to check if the user already had the application. That leads to all sorts of privacy issues.
Would you like people to try to gift you app to see what you have already bought?
They could use the information to see what your interests were, etc.

Still you would think that once the person received the email and informed you that they already own the app you would be able to reclaim it the purchase if unredeemed or they could return it.

If I buy my someone a gift card and they choose not to use it, they can always give it back to me. Or if I buy them something they own, they can return it for a refund or store credit...

In apples case, this is just free money for them.

I have gifted an app to a friend and he already owns the app. Can he convert the gift into store credit? Is there an official policy on this? If the money is just lost, who can I send a message to in order to voice my concerns? I love Apple and own iPhone, iPad, MBPs, etc and I have spent way more money than I care to think about in the App Store. It is upsetting that an app gift recipient has no way to use the money for another app if they already own the one I gifted. I get the whole privacy thing... I just feel there should be an option to forward the credit for the app towards their overall credit in iTunes.

Thanks for any assistance. This was the only place I could find online with any info about this topic.

Can he convert the gift into store credit?

No.

Is there an official policy on this?

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html#APPS

"Gifts are not refundable"

If the money is just lost, who can I send a message to in order to voice my concerns?

You can comment to Apple through the iTunes feedback page.

Buying a gift for anyone always carries the risk that they already have it. Not even all stores selling physical goods allow exchanges and returns, and electronic goods almost never are returnable. So if you're thinking of giving an electronic gift, you really need to be confident that they recipient doesn't already have it, or just accept the risk that they will and that your money will be lost. Note that if the gift was in the form of a redemption code not linked specifically to that person's email address, the recipient could pass the gift on to someone else.

Regards.

Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

CaptSaltyJack wrote:
I'd like to know what happens if you gift an app to someone who happens to already own it.

There is a very simple solution to this problem which you can access via iTunes. Click on Purchase History after you have logged into the Store and selected View my Account.

Here you can click on the arrow pointing to the gift transaction you are concerned about. If the gift app is still unredeemed there will be another arrow to click on which will allow you to resend the gift. You can send the gift to yourself, or to anyone else of your choosing.

No refund I'm sorry to say but not a total loss either. Good luck