The fourth edition of DLA Piper's popular guide to Prize Promotions Around the World is now available here.  Fully updated, four new jurisdictions have been added, to bring the total coverage to 39 jurisdictions.

Prize promotions (including promotional sweepstakes and skill competitions) remain a hugely popular marketing tool used globally by businesses to attract customers. The internet and social media platforms make this an attractive, cost efficient means of reaching a large, multi-jurisdictional customer base; but it is not without its legal challenges.

This guide is designed to equip DLA Piper's clients with a useful tool to assist them with the management of the early development stages of a promotion, and to bring potentially problematic issues to their attention as soon as possible.  Issues covered include legal requirements for sweepstakes and skills competitions, regulation of judges and prizes, formal requirements such as registration and translations, and penalties for non-compliance.

New features and trends

In response to client demand, this new edition of the Guide has been expanded to cover 39 jurisdictions which count among the most significant for global businesses, with the addition of Denmark, Hungary, Nigeria and Turkey.

The guide's interactive map has also been updated, and it confirms that the extent of regulation and sanctions in this area is on the rise, with the most noticeable change being brought about by the introduction of GDPR across the EU. GDPR extends obligations around handling promotion entrants’ personal data (eg for winner publicity, use of promotions to generate marketing leads and use of UGC entries containing personal data), and introduces the possibility of huge fines for breaches of those obligations.

Approach to International Prize Promotions

Marketing and legal teams of international brands are frequently tasked with rolling out cross-jurisdictional promotions in short timescales.  But the variety of legal requirements across jurisdictions can make this a complex and risky endeavor.  

This guide does not replace legal advice, but can help to identify key issues early and target resources.  A proportionate approach must be adopted, which takes account of the differing legal requirements, budgets, potential exposure, and co-ordinates input from the affected jurisdictions.  The DLA Piper global advertising and marketing team is uniquely well placed to handle complex, frequently multi-jurisdictional compliance projects, including prize promotions.