It’s Your Blog is a weekly series about taking ownership of your blog and making it the best it can be, because, well, It’s YOUR blog. It reflects you, represents you and is an extension of you. Join me Mondays for It’s Your Blog.
***UPDATE 07/19/2012 – In light of Facebook’s policy about promotions I believe someone can not enter to win a giveaway by only liking a Facebook page. However, liking a Facebook page can be a prerequisite to enter a contest. A second action is required for entry once a person likes a page. Essentially it would be a fan-only giveaway. I think liking a page can also be offered as an alternative form of entry. This is a gray area, and this is only my interpretation of the rules. You should do your own research, and if necessary seek legal counsel regarding this and all legal matters. ***
Do you know that giveaway you’re hosting on your blog may actually be an illegal lottery?
That’s right. There are federal and state laws that define and regulate lotteries and sweepstakes. Lotteries, unless they are state-run or are an authorized raffle, are illegal. If your giveaway meets the definition of a lottery you’re breaking the law.
To be a lottery three elements are required:
1. A Prize
2. A Chance to Win
3. Consideration
One and two are pretty clear cut, but what is Consideration? Consideration is when the entity hosting or sponsoring a chance to win a prize requires some form of action from the entrants that benefits the entity or expends effort. It can be monetary or non-monetary, such as requiring everyone to sign up for a newsletter.
To be a sweepstakes the element of Consideration must be removed. This is why you so often see “No Purchase Necessary” listed in sweepstakes rules. The entity holding the sweepstakes is required to offer an alternate form of entry that is not Consideration.
What does and does not constitute Consideration is somewhat of a gray area. Reviewing laws and court cases involving corporations and stores running sweepstakes the definition of Consideration varies from state to state and judge to judge. Based on my research I believe requiring entrants to do any of the following qualifies as Consideration in the blogging arena:
1. Subscribe by RSS
2. Subscribe by Email
3. Follow you on Twitter
4. Subscribe to a newsletter
5. Follow you on Google Friend Connect
6. Like your page on Facebook
7. Send you cash
8. Babysit your kids for free whenever you ask
9. Jump through 20 hoops when you say go
Or everyone’s favorite:
10. Visit the sponsor’s website then leave a comment telling what your favorite product is.
You can’t require a visit to a place of business. A website is a place of business even if it’s not a physical one.
I’ve required a visit to the sponsor’s site many times not realizing I was doing anything wrong. I did know you weren’t supposed to require someone to sign up for something. Asking them to like your Facebook page is the same as signing up for something.
I started researching this topic after discussing it with my sister-in-law who also blogs. We see these actions required all the time for blog giveaway entries. We both agreed that, legal or not, it’s kind of annoying to be forced to sign up for anything. If that’s the case, we just don’t enter.
So now the question is does it matter if you hold an illegal lottery on your little, inconspicuous blog? I couldn’t find any instances of bloggers being charged with running illegal lotteries. And Illegal Lottery does sound kind of intriguing and Vegas and smokey backroom sexy. However, knowing that the FTC is watching us since they started regulating bloggers last year, it’s a chance I don ‘t want to take.
Also, if you want to be taken seriously as a blogger it behooves you to act professionally, no matter how big or small your readership. Running a sweepstakes the wrong way isn’t professional.
What can you do legally if you’re hosting a giveaway on your blog?
To make sure you’re running a sweepstakes and not an illegal lottery your one required entry should only be that people leave a comment with their name and way to contact them on your giveaway post. Then you can offer any of the other options as additional entries.
What if the sponsor of the giveaway prize balks when you refuse to require a visit to their site? I would explain that technically it’s illegal. If they still insist, I say a company that wants you do something illegal isn’t worth working with.
I’m not a gambling-woman, but if you want to take a chance, do it at the casino, not with your blog.
I want to stress that this is my interpretation of what I read on this subject. I encourage you to do your own research on the matter, and since it does vary by state check your local laws and regulations.
It’s your blog…what are you going to do with it?
{Applause} Bravo! More bloggers need to know this. Nothing discourages me more from entering a blog giveaway than being required to do something. Aside from the legality, I don’t like being required to follow a blog. If I like it, I’ll follow it. Also, I want my readers to be following me because they like my blog, not because it was required. Thank you for addressing this sticky issue.
This is fantastic information! While I do not love regulations… I do love that this *just might* help distinguish between blogs that people actually like to read, and blogs that have a ton of subscribers because they run a lot of giveaways.
Fantastic information! I didn’t consider that visiting the sponsors website would violate the law. Thankfully, this should be an easy tweak to make.
Thanks!
@Sarah @ Sarah’s Deals, This is just my take on what I read on the subject. I stand by it, but I also encourage you to research it as well before making any drastic changes. I’m not a lawyer after all.
Thank you for this information. I guess from now on I need to change my entry requirements. My blog means too much to me to take a chance!
@Andrea – Moody Mama Says, Yes it’s not something I want to risk either. While I stand by this it is my interpretation of the law. If you can check your state’s law before making any drastic changes.
That’s a great point about visiting a sponsors site! That’s a change I will make because I just didn’t know.
Thanks for putting this out there. I see I need to do a little tweaking!
I didn’t even think about that. Great research thank you so much. Going to tweak my giveaway right now.
Thanks for the info. Recently made the decision to stop doing giveaways. Or at least will be very selective
@Cindi @ Moomettes Magnificents, I don’t do them very often either. Hosting giveaways can really get to be very time consuming and complicated.
I guess I’ve been a giveaway hustler. I should have done my research before hosting giveaways on my blog. I’m still new to the blogging world and honestly, I wanted followers; GFC, Twitter, Facebook, however. But I would much rather have someone follow my blog because they want to instead of requiring them to for an entry.
I always ask a quirky question for my mandatory entry~so I guess I am doing it right. Great post, thanks for the information.
New follower! 🙂
I didn’t even think about this aspect. I’ve recently started asking a question or something as a mandatory entry and then offering other ways to enter such as following me is different ways. That is ok, isn’t it?
@New To Mom, Michelle I think that’s is fine.
Is it okay to offer these are bonus optional entries? I always make my giveaway mandatory entry to tell me your name and email address. Following me in various ways is optional and will give you a bonus entry. I want people to follow me because they want to, not to win a giveaway.
@Sarah, Yes offering optional entries as well would not be a problem.
Thanks for bringing attention to this! About a year ago I made the change on my blog to not require anything for entry in giveaways because of the “illegal lottery” Strangely, I notice that entries are down on the few giveaway I do, even though stats are up. I wonder if people are so accustomed to the hoops they are asked to jump through that they wonder if a simple leave your name and contact information isn’t legit. Anyway, thanks for writing about it! I hope many give it careful consideration!
@Katie, I think one reason giveaway entries are down for a lot of people is because there are so many blogs holding then now. When I started blogging in 2007 it still wasn’t that common. The audience is spread out over a larger number of giveaways now.
Hmmmm. I did some research into this recently and came up with similar conclusions, although not quite as stringent as yours. I don’t think it’s illegal to ask a giveaway contestant to (mandatory) visit the sponsor’s website. See this quote about sweepstakes:
“Consideration is a somewhat elusive aspect of promotion law, but some generalities can be drawn. It takes either of two basic forms: monetary, in which the consumer must pay the sponsor to play (a purchase or an entry fee), or non-monetary, in which the consumer must expend substantial time or effort (completion of a detailed questionnaire or a mandatory visit to the sponsor’s retail location, for example) to participate.”
It’s the “substantial time and effort” that gets me. If it only takes 2-5 minutes to complete the task, I don’t know that it breaks the rules of sweepstakes. See my source here: http://www.fredlaw.com/articles/marketing/mark_0310_srb.html
Where are your quotes from?
Thanks for opening this conversation; it’s definitely an important and confusing one for us bloggers!!!
🙂 Katie
@Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship There is this article http://files.ali-aba.org/thumbs/datastorage/lacidoirep/articles/TPL0708-Bennett_thumb.pdf that says some states view anything seen as a benefit the promoter as consideration. I did read also that there are some states that do not allow requiring a visit to a place of business, and I can’t locate the article now. To me a website is a place of business.
Consideration is as it says in what you quoted above elusive. It’s complicated by that fact that laws are different in each state, and it’s also open to interpretation by the courts. This is just my interpretation. Perhaps I should have been more clear that this was my conclusion, and not the final say in the matter.
It is good to have this dialogue. I think sometimes we don’t always consider how any law effects our blogs. For some our blog is our business, and for others it’s our creative outlet or hobby. Yet we all are subject to laws, regulations and even un-written ethics.
I’m so glad you posted this information. More and more, I’m feeling like running giveaways are not worth the effort for me personally.
I had always wondered if you could “REQUIRE” a thing for contest entry, seems silly. TO me it should all be voluntary. A simply option to just comment on this blog post would suffice too. Thanks for this as it has opened my eyes and I will have to tell PR how it is that I refuse to “require” such nonsense moving forward with future giveaways!
Wow, I guess I will have to redo those entry requirements! Thank you for letting us know!
I hate it when companies have requirements to do this or that first. Good info, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for this very informative post! I found this post useful as well: http://www.ennsandarcher.com/s_basics.html
Particularly, the comment that “Consideration may be found in a requirement for a purchase of goods or services or other monetary payment, or can be found in burdensome performance requirements, such as multiple store visits, or a lengthy survey. Consideration is typically eliminated by allowing a mail entry or other free method of entry without proof of purchase.”
Based on that statement, I don’t really know that asking people to visit a website would be consideration – it’s free, doesn’t require proof of purchase, and is arguably much easier (and cheaper) than doing a mail entry.
Definitely good food for thought, and a topic well worth discussion.
Thanks so much for this! Terracycle wants to do a giveaway on my site and I wanted to read up on it.
Thank you for an informative article!
I won an online sweepstakes a couple of months ago and have been getting the run-around about the prize ever since. (It’s in the mail…) Does the blog owner have any liability in this; does the prize-provider, since she’s the one that’s been blowing me off; or am I just out of luck? (I have searched the internet and can’t find an answer to my question, so if you have one, I thank you in advance!)
That’s a difficult question. I haven’t researched that a lot. Many bloggers have disclaimers that it is the company’s responsibility to fulfill the prize, and that as the blogger they’re not responsible if the prize isn’t sent. Most of the time bloggers merely host the giveaway, send the winner’s information to the sponsor then the sponsor is supposed to send the prize. Rarely is the blogger responsible for actually mailing the prize. As a blogger I have unfortunately had sponsors not hold up their end of the bargain. It really stinks because the winner never gets the prize, and it makes the blogger look bad.
Thanks!
Thanks for posting this info!! and the update!
i have a major problem with bloggers who require you to rate them on Alexa, give them a k for Klout and do everything else they need done! I think it is quite ignorant and i never enter those giveaways.