“I want to run a prize competition”
Can I run a prize competition for customers
Answer
Yes, but
Yes, but only for as long as the competition meets the conditions in § 4(6) of Act 30/2019 Coll.: it is not a separate business activity, it serves only to promote sales, and participation is not conditional on paying a stake. Once one of those falls away, it is a game of chance, and that may not be operated without a licence.
Allowed only if you meet the conditions; miss one and it becomes unlawful.
A competition looks like a marketing detail, and it is the only one of these questions where the wrong answer ends not in a fine for advertising, but in operating a game of chance without a licence. The line is thinner than people expect.
The decisive concept is the stake. Under § 2 of Act 30/2019 Coll. it is the payment of funds or the provision of another asset value needed for the player to take part. Buying goods is not in itself a stake and § 4(6) expressly confirms it; paying merely to enter the competition is another matter.
The conditions the answer rests on
- 01
The competition promotes sales and is not a business in itself
§ 4(6) excludes from games of chance those promotional competitions that are not a separate business activity and serve only to promote the sale of goods and services. A competition that earns money in its own right does not fall within that exclusion.
- 02
No stake is paid for taking part
A condition of the exclusion under § 4(6) is that participation is not conditional on paying a stake. Under § 2, a stake is the payment of funds or the provision of another asset value needed to take part. The last sentence of § 4(6) also says that payments made for the purpose of entering the competition are not treated as a stake.
- 03
Watch out for premium-rate SMS and calls
The second sentence of § 4(1) says that a game of chance also covers a game where the stake is the difference between the price of a call or a message set for participation in the game and the ordinary price charged by the operator. A competition run through premium SMS is therefore a different category from one run through a form.
- 04
A prize you announce has to be awarded
Point 25 of Annex 1 to Act 108/2024 Coll. treats as always unfair the claim that a trader will offer a competition or announce a prize without awarding the described prize or providing a reasonable equivalent.
Where we will not answer for you
Under § 2, a stake also covers the provision of another asset value needed to take part, and the wording does not determine what falls within that concept besides money. Whether it covers, for example, a duty to share a post, hand over contact details or complete a creative task cannot be read out of the text, even though that is exactly how social media competitions work today. Alongside that, Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 applies to entrants' data and a legal basis is needed for it. A competition meant to be more than a one-off belongs with a lawyer before it launches.
How to do it in practice
Entry without payment, the prize tied to a purchase
§ 4(6) expressly allows participation to be conditional on buying goods or a service and proving the purchase. What is prohibited is payment for the entry itself, not an ordinary purchase the customer would have made anyway.
A form instead of premium SMS
Entering through a website or by email does not raise the question under the second sentence of § 4(1), because no difference arises there between the price of a message for participation and the ordinary price charged by the operator.
Rules published in advance
Written rules with the deadline, the prize and the method of selection are the cheapest way to evidence what you promised. In a dispute about a prize under point 25 of Annex 1, they are the only evidence you have.
What the statute says
Wording taken from the official register. Every excerpt is machine-compared against the statutes in our database, so it cannot drift from what the law actually says.
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Can I make entry conditional on a purchase?
§ 4(6) allows for it: a promotional competition also covers an event where participation is conditional on buying goods or a service and proving the purchase to the organiser. What is prohibited is paying a stake for the participation itself, not an ordinary purchase.
What turns a competition into a game of chance?
Under § 4(6), the moment one of the conditions of the exclusion stops holding: the competition becomes a separate business activity, stops serving only to promote sales, or participation becomes conditional on paying a stake. A competition run through premium SMS under § 4(1) is a special case.
Is it enough to pick the winner by the best answer instead of a draw?
§ 4(6) defines promotional competitions through random selection and § 4(1) ties a game of chance to a result depending on chance. A competition judged by a panel sits elsewhere than a draw, but assessing a particular mechanism is a legal service and we will not provide it here.
Do we have to publish rules?
Act 30/2019 Coll. does not prescribe them for a promotional competition in § 4(6). Point 25 of Annex 1 to Act 108/2024 Coll. does penalise promising a prize that is never awarded, however, and without written rules it is hard to evidence what was promised.