Competitions – what is allowed?

“Only those who buy our product can take part,” “Congratulations, you can choose a reward,” or instead of a car, only a poster will be raffled off – are companies allowed to do all of this?

As our cooperation partner checked4you advises, there is an important basic rule when it comes to competitions:

If someone offers a prize, it must actually exist and it must be played. So if someone is giving something away without revealing their identity (for example, a website that has no legal notice), something is very fishy. So it's better to stay away from it!

But reputable providers also use methods for competitions that always make you wonder whether they are even allowed to do so. Here are examples:

The asterisk and the small print

That sounds really great: Just like a fan page on Facebook and you can win a car. What hardly anyone pays attention to is that behind the word “car” there is a small star (i.e.: car*) and if you look at what is behind the star in the description of the fan page, you will see that only a poster is being raffled off shows a car.

A highlighted statement must be correct in itself. Unclear information may be marked with a * and explained somewhere else if this avoids misleading information.

This means for the participants: Where there is an *, always look for clarification! If you can't find one, you should probably stay away from such a competition.

The compulsion to buy

Sometimes you can only take part in a competition if you first purchase something from the company organizing the competition. This may actually be okay. However, such couplings are illegal, for example if there is an “extreme attraction effect”. Whether this is the case must be checked for each individual case.

Consent to advertising

In order to take part in a competition, you often have to agree that the provider can call you or send you post or emails. In many cases this is actually allowed because no one is forced to take part in a competition. However, the explanations in the small print should be read very carefully. When you sign, you often allow the data to be resold. If you no longer wish to receive advertising, you can revoke your consent. However, the revocation must then be sent to every company that has the data and may take a lot of time.

If necessary, regardless of consent, it may make sense to object to direct advertising and the associated profile creation and to request that the data be blocked. The consumer advice center offers a sample letter .

The congratulatory letter

“Winning notifications” will be sent by email or post. You are then congratulated on a large amount of money - at least that's how it seems at first glance. Because in slightly smaller print there is a “chance of winning” in front of the large amount of money, which quickly makes the win a waste.

Then the entire letter is a deception and the recipient is not entitled to any winnings. But it's different if you're mentioned by name as the winner, for example. Then the recipient can even sue for the promised profit. However, this is associated with many hurdles - especially if the company is based abroad. local consumer advice centers offer help in assessing a prize notification .

The SMS

We have dedicated a separate article to the prospects of great winnings via SMS: Win an iPhone or voucher via SMS?

The calling

In a lottery draw you supposedly won a prize and were allowed to choose one from several presents. You can also subscribe to a magazine at a reduced price. What is sold as a great profit is actually a sneaky scam to sell magazine subscriptions with a normal advertising premium.

Callers often claim to be calling on behalf of a mobile phone provider or another well-known company. This prevents the person being called from asking, for example, where the caller got their data from. Because without your consent , such calls are not allowed at all.

Anyone who realizes after the phone call that they do not want to subscribe to the magazine can have it clarified whether a valid contract has even been concluded. If this is actually the case, there is still the right of withdrawal. This means: The person you are calling can withdraw from the contract without paying a cent.

The period for this is 14 days and begins as soon as you receive the goods for the first time. Because this is all tricky, an expert should take a look - for example from the consumer advice center's legal advice department . In order to be able to cancel a possible contract later, it is important to ask for the company's postal address during the conversation! If it is mentioned only hesitantly or not at all, there is usually something wrong and you should hang up.

Under no circumstances should you provide your bank details! These could be used to deduct money without authorization. If this happens, you should definitely report it to the police.

The competition hotline

“Hit line 10 and you'll be put through,” is a common statement on radio or television. The listeners/viewers should dial a telephone number that begins with 0137 and costs 50 cents per call on a landline - and it's even more expensive on a cell phone.

Even if you call often and never get “line 10”, this is allowed as long as the competition organizer clearly explains that there is only one “winning line”. In addition, the costs must also be announced when calling. Everyone decides for themselves whether they want to get involved and take part and how often they call.

The customer card

Sometimes companies hold special competitions for loyalty card holders. The more often you use the card, the greater your chance of winning becomes. In this way, the companies are of course trying to lure their customers into the stores even more often and make them shop more heavily. Whether this is okay depends on what is stated in the general terms and conditions (GTC) for the card. If you don't want to take part in the competition, you can simply leave your customer card in your purchase until the competition is over.