Howdy all! I searched around for information about this for a while, but it’s pretty damn hard to search for anything with the word “prize” in it on Google and find productive results.
I’m wondering if there are any legalities to consider with respect to giving away small prizes from my website. How small? It’d be stuff like free upgraded memberships, shirts, mousepads, and maybe even a personally autographed jpg! (feel the excitement!)
I know that the internet is the last place to get legal advice, so I’m just asking for friendly suggestions here. Thanks!
Spell out the rules clearly. Try to think of how people will mis-inturpet the rules to try and get free stuff.
In Canada if a person wins a contest they then have to pass a basic skills test. It is really weird but if you have Canadian members you may want to check that out.
IANAL, either, but you’ll have to deal with the varying laws of each of the 50 states. A lot of states, for example, make it illegal to condition a prize giveaway on someone making a purchase - it’s got to be available to anyone, even if they don’t buy anything. Some states, I believe, have more stringent requirements, which is why you often see contests/giveaways that say “Offer not valid in KY, MO, and WA.” (Just pulling some states out of the air.)
Thanks for the responses! For clarification - this would be for contests like a online football tourney where the top few players get prizes. There are no entry fees involved.
