Missing prizes - maybe?

taz_nut

Hi All,

Looking for some advice please from competition regulars.

GK ran a 12 days for Christmas competition through their "Season Ticket App", in the run up and days after Christmas. In order to use the app there had to be an "advertised" sporting event and you had to use the app after purchasing a qualifying drink.

There were various prizes on offer culminating in one lucky winner winning a trip for 2 to Australia.

On the 7th day there was the chance to win hospitality tickets for a Liverpool FC game all you had to do was comment on the result of the Liverpool vs Man United game on their "Sport on Tap" FB page.

Only 11 people did this and only 3 predicted Liverpool to win.

After each round they announced the winner/s on their FB pages both Sport on Tap and the Season Ticket FB page.

However, for round 7 they have not announced a winner and even after being prompted by myself and another guy they are still to do this.

They have also failed to announce the winner of the Australia trip even though the T+C's state that the winners would be selected by the 30th December 2018, (see point 7 at the link below).

Is there any requirements on them under the t+c's, i.e. point 7 that they have to publish, or by means of suggesting "winners will be selected", means they do not have to publish winners or are they legally required to do so or can someone request a list of all winners?

Can they simply decide that there were not enough entries so the prize will not be given?

I have sent them a message via their FB page which they have seen but have chosen not to respond....

Any advice welcome!

As a new user I can't post a link but you can find it at, (no gaps between /'s and xx being co) greeneking-pubs.xx.uk /xmas-sport / terms

Cheers,

Taz.

sleepyjones

https://www.greeneking-pubs.co.uk/xmas-sport/terms

Think kinda thing has come up recently, it could be that they tried to contact the winner but didn't get a response, in that scenario they don't actually need to award a prize (ie, give it to a second person).

As far as the ASA (this would be the "legally" bit, they're the "watchdog" for this kind of thing) is concerned it's all a bit "up in the air" at the moment with GDPR and announcing winners ... it used to be a requirement but now with GDPR they're arguing amongst themselves whether publicly announcing a winner complies with GDPR :

"Code rule 8.28.5 states that promotors must publish, or make available the full name and county of all major prize winners. CAP is completing work following a consultation on changes to its rules on the collection and use of data for marketing. These changes are intended to ensure that its rules cover data protection issues most relevant to marketing, and that they are aligned with the standards introduced by the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR). Until the work is completed, the ASA will not administer rule 8.28.5.

So you're a bit out of luck on that front, if you wanted to get a bit harsher with them you could write them a message and state "The ASA Code rule 8.28.5 states that promotors must publish, or make available the full name and county of all major prize winners. " and hope they don't know / check the actual rule isn't actually being enforced at the moment and see if it rattles them.

Details here from the ASA / CAP : https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/promotional-marketing-prize-winners.html#Announcing%20prize%20winners

mjm3346

Yep, if a winner does not want their details published a company could then be in breach of GDPR if they did

It may be difficult for promoters to meet the strict GDPR conditions of consent. For example, the condition of consent being ‘freely given’ – in willingness to be compliant with the CAP rules, promoters would have to make participation in competitions conditional to providing consent. The GDPR does not allow collection of consent that is conditional to a provision of service.

Also, under the GDPR individuals have a clear right to withdraw their consent at any time. This could cause difficulties in complying with rule 8.28.5.

CAP has not given a timeline as to when the work to change Rule 8.28.5 will be completed.

There is therefore a degree of ambiguity surrounding whether or not promoters should publish or make available the full name and county of major prize winners. Especially given that competitions could run for a number of months, with the changes to the CAP Code potentially arriving whilst the competition is running.

Pending publication of the new CAP Code rules, and in order to facilitate compliance with the GDPR, promoters may wish to avoid publishing or making available the winner’s information if the winner’s consent to do so was collected as part of their entry into the prize promotion. As such, promoters may determine there are more suitable lawful bases for publication of winners’ details, such in the “legitimate interests” of promoters to comply with best practice in the industry or performance of contract between a promoter and the competition participants.

Alternatively, a promoter can simply obtain the winner’s consent to publish their details after they have been notified that they have won a prize, in this way, such consent is likely to meet the GDPR standard of being truly freely given and fully informed.

taz_nut

Agree GDPR is obviously an issue these days, but if you have access to FB and you look at the other prizes awarded they have just put winners of round 4, Mark, Dave, John, Sarah, just as an example, it is only Round 7 and the big prize that they have not announced even a name....maybe me just being suspicious especially with there only being 3 possible winners for round 7!