Unsubscribing from Competition Emails

Amberelli

I would ideally like to keep my 'competition inbox' as clear as possible so that I see relevant emails more easily - with this is mind, can one unsubscribe from emails prior to competition deadlines and still be notified if you win? ... or does that depend on the comp owner and T&Cs?

Apologies if this has been asked before - I did a forum search but came up with nothing. Thank you.

mjm3346

Don't subscribe in the first place it generally should not be a condition of entry - GDPR (if it is then unsubscribing may not be a good thing)

pate-ci0

mjm3346 said:

Don't subscribe in the first place it generally should not be a condition of entry - GDPR (if it is then unsubscribing may not be a good thing)

There are an awful lot of competitions which will not allow you to enter unless you subscribe to their newsletters. The majority do state that you can unsubscribe anytime in which case unsubscribing should have no effect on winning. However, there are the odd comps which state that if you unsubscribe before the competition draw, your entry will be invalid, so it is always best to check the Terms and Conditions.
Unless it is required, or you are really interested in the product, I never subscribe when entering competitions.

mjm3346

From the ASA info 

• First, the consent needs to have been freely given.  If you require people to consent to receive marketing as a condition to entering a promotion or accessing a product or opportunity, the ASA is unlikely to accept that it was ‘freely given.

pate-ci0

mjm3346 said:

From the ASA info 

• First, the consent needs to have been freely given.  If you require people to consent to receive marketing as a condition to entering a promotion or accessing a product or opportunity, the ASA is unlikely to accept that it was ‘freely given.

Quite so, but we have all come across competitions where the Submit button does not work unless you tick the box to agree to marketing or newsletters, or even worse, where it merely states that by entering this competition you agree to marketing/etc. This may not adhere to ASA standards, but regardless, if you want to enter the comp then you must tick the box. I reckon I see at least one or two of these per day and also tend to Unsubscribe from one or two per day in the emails I receive.
Sending in complaints to the ASA would be pointless in that the competitions would be long finished before the ASA gets around to looking at it and all they would do at most is give the promoter a warning (if that). So I just tick the box and Unsubscribe when the emails come back.
Of course, you are under no obligation to tick the box since you are under no obligation to enter the competition, thus it could be argued that if you do so, you do so willingly.

mjm3346

pate-ci0 said:

mjm3346 said:

From the ASA info 

• First, the consent needs to have been freely given.  If you require people to consent to receive marketing as a condition to entering a promotion or accessing a product or opportunity, the ASA is unlikely to accept that it was ‘freely given.

Quite so, but we have all come across competitions where the Submit button does not work unless you tick the box to agree to marketing or newsletters, or even worse, where it merely states that by entering this competition you agree to marketing/etc. This may not adhere to ASA standards, but regardless, if you want to enter the comp then you must tick the box. I reckon I see at least one or two of these per day and also tend to Unsubscribe from one or two per day in the emails I receive.
Sending in complaints to the ASA would be pointless in that the competitions would be long finished before the ASA gets around to looking at it and all they would do at most is give the promoter a warning (if that). So I just tick the box and Unsubscribe when the emails come back.
Of course, you are under no obligation to tick the box since you are under no obligation to enter the competition, thus it could be argued that if you do so, you do so willingly.

If you have to subscribe to enter than that does not count as freely given consent (GDPR) - if someone choose to complain to the ASA a judgement counts against the company not just a particular competition. Of course not every company sticks to the rules so they may well void entries from unsubscribers, check if a "winner" is a subscriber before confirming they have won or simple delete all their contact information so they cannot contact them

pate-ci0

mjm3346 said:

pate-ci0 said:

mjm3346 said:

From the ASA info 

• First, the consent needs to have been freely given.  If you require people to consent to receive marketing as a condition to entering a promotion or accessing a product or opportunity, the ASA is unlikely to accept that it was ‘freely given.

Quite so, but we have all come across competitions where the Submit button does not work unless you tick the box to agree to marketing or newsletters, or even worse, where it merely states that by entering this competition you agree to marketing/etc. This may not adhere to ASA standards, but regardless, if you want to enter the comp then you must tick the box. I reckon I see at least one or two of these per day and also tend to Unsubscribe from one or two per day in the emails I receive.
Sending in complaints to the ASA would be pointless in that the competitions would be long finished before the ASA gets around to looking at it and all they would do at most is give the promoter a warning (if that). So I just tick the box and Unsubscribe when the emails come back.
Of course, you are under no obligation to tick the box since you are under no obligation to enter the competition, thus it could be argued that if you do so, you do so willingly.

If you have to subscribe to enter than that does not count as freely given consent (GDPR) - if someone choose to complain to the ASA a judgement counts against the company not just a particular competition. Of course not every company sticks to the rules so they may well void entries from unsubscribers, check if a "winner" is a subscriber before confirming they have won or simple delete all their contact information so they cannot contact them

I don't disagree with any of that. Nonetheless, it is a fact that many comps require you to subscribe before an entry is accepted. Many of the companies are quite reputable as far as I am aware, with good prizes. I am happy to subscribe particularly when it is stated that you can unsubscribe at any time so that when I do Unsubscribe I am adhering to the rules so should still have a valid entry. A few random examples recently are:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6468615/e-10-09-win-300-of-montane-new-season-gear
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466978/e-24-08-8am-win-an-asus-rog-strix-g15-gaming-laptop-plus-10-aaa-pc-games
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6445364/e-26-05-win-a-six-monthly-supply-of-delicious-porridge-products-worth-over-120
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6347555/e-30-04-win-a-luxury-garden-furniture-set-worth-over-1000-newsletter

also Annabel Karmel, Britain Magazine .... there are lots of comps which put you onto email or marketing lists. 
Not saying it is right, just saying it is what it is and addressing the topic of whether you are more likely to win if you remain subscribed or not. With a reputable company it should make no difference.

onyx22

This is from one I just entered for Shakeup cosmetics
"If you do not consent to this, please do not enter the giveaway. You can withdraw your consent at any time as per our privicy policy" , not seen that before.
I do think the problem is that ASA, (or whichever company is setting the rules) seem to be allowing companies to bend the rules, I wont subscribe unless the form wont be accepted and I unsubscribe as soon as the first email arrives but I've wondered how many of those, have then not included my entry.

mjm3346

The ASA only seem to act on complaints not sure about the ICO who can and have imposed some massive fines 

What is ‘freely given’?

Consent means giving people genuine choice and control over how you use their data. If the individual has no real choice, consent is not freely given and it will be invalid.

This means people must be able to refuse consent without detriment, and must be able to withdraw consent easily at any time. It also means consent should be unbundled from other terms and conditions (including giving separate granular consent options for different types of processing) wherever possible.

and GDPR

“Consent should not be regarded as freely given if the data subject has no genuine or free choice or is unable to refuse or withdraw consent without detriment.”

That seems quite clear then the ICO slightly muddy the water with

The ICO’s view is that it may still be possible to incentivise consent to some extent. There will usually be some benefit to consenting to processing. For example, if joining the retailer’s loyalty scheme comes with access to money-off vouchers, there is clearly some incentive to consent to marketing. The fact that this benefit is unavailable to those who don’t sign up does not amount to a detriment for refusal. However, you must be careful not to cross the line and unfairly penalise those who refuse consent.

I've never entered where consent is forced but did see it the other day for a small ice cream company (not a walls etc)

Scorpioangel

Offering competitions for people who are subscribed to newsletters is really no different to those sites/promoters who only allow registered users/members to enter.

For those which don't have regular comps, or content that I am interested in, I unsubscribe after the comp closing date

redfox5

On a positive note of all those emails you end up with after entering comps, you can find loads of competitions from them. I use an email just for comps and everyday the inbox has 300-400 emails. I skim them for winning emails before deleting them all. Then search for 'congratulations' 'winner' 'won', after that I look for 'WIN'. I find most of the website competitions I post from these emails, so can be worth staying subscribed.