If you think that sweepstakes laws can be confusing and expensive to adhere to in the US, wait till you check out these unique international sweepstakes & contest laws in other countries.
Canada: When running a promotion in Quebec all materials must be available in English AND French. This includes rules, promotional ads, posters, entry forms, web sites, etc. And when you run a sweeps all winners must pass a basic skill test (usually a math problem) to claim their prize. See our previous blog post for more information on this.
Mexico: In Mexico, any prize exceeding approximately US$5,000 has to be delivered in the presence of the Mexican authorities.
Brazil: In Brazil, you can’t award cash as a prize. UPDATE AUGUST 2015: Brazil recently revised their position on contests. Contests/promotions are now prohibited unless permission is obtained from the Ministry of Finance in Brazil and there is not a standard practice for submitting promotions for potential approval at this time. Please contact us if you have an interest in running a promotion in Brazil.
France: In France, ANY participants in your promotion can claim the cost of Internet or postage that they paid to enter your promotion. Which means if you have thousands of mail-in entries and they all want to be reimbursed for postage, you may compromise your budget.
Sweden: In Sweden, most games of chance (sweepstakes and instant wins) are banned — unless they are simple social giveaways involving non-cash or cash equivalent prizes (UPDATED JANUARY 2019). Games of skill (contests) are allowed, though!
Ireland: In Ireland, all games of chance (sweepstakes and instant wins) requiring purchase are banned unless a sponsor is a non-profit charity.
Italy: In Italy, you must have your promotion registered, bonded, and have your rules reviewed by Italian counsel – plus you must involve a public official in winner selection. As if that were not cost prohibitive enough, you must also collect all of your sweepstakes data in Italy.
Netherlands: According to Dutch law, an individual may not receive more than 2,500 Euros in total prizes. And the total amount of prizes for an entire promotion prize pool cannot exceed 100,000 Euros.
Russia: Maintaining publicity rights in perpetuity is not possible in Russia. This means that the rights to use any user generated content (photos, essays, videos, etc.) you collect in conjunction with a promotion will need to be negotiated if you plan on using the content.
Taiwan: In Taiwan, your grand prize can’t be more that 120 times the basic monthly wages set by the Council of Labor Affairs under the Executive Yuan (Cabinet). As of July 1, 2014 this amount is set at NT$19,273 (approximately US$640) per month, so don’t let your grand prize go over NT$2,312,760 (approximately US$76,800).
If you plan on running an international promotion, call us at 516-365-3999 to help you so you don’t accidentally violate international laws.
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Hello:
Thanks for sharing. For information about Puerto Rico regulation on sweeps we can talk. It might be of use as a compliment for your next article.
Best, Luis Vivoni
PS: We will have an expert round table in this year’s BAA Marketing Law Conference.
https://www.baalink.org/event/36th-annual-baapma-marketing-law-conference.
love your stuff
Didn’t know about this international law in brazil. I’m Brazilian and here is common to award cash as prize.
Ah.. here in Brazil we can receive a knife!…
You can’t award cash in Brazil, but companies get around that by awarding financial certificates, like gold bonds or capitalization funds, that are immediately liquid upon receipt. The ads for the sweepstakes only mention that in the fine print, so most people don’t know about this rule. Only the official lotteries may award cash, and all forms of gambling are illegal.
Can someone having a giveaway in England, force someone who lives in the U.S. to pay for shipping and handing to receive their winnings?
Hi Danette — Not sure what the circumstances are so we really can’t comment on that. You should refer to the Official Rules of the program to see what they say. Good luck!
I was just curious. There are a bunch of giveaways for juice on Facebook. All them state that it’s all free, including the shipping, to America or anywhere else in the world. There is one business that has giveaways but makes people pay shipping outside of the U.K.
Sometimes they charge you to enter their “giveaways” on Facebook.
cool
In Canada most US sweepstakes that include Canada specifically write Quebec out of the contest in their rules because they are prohibitive to include them. As a matter of fact most of the contests run from WITHIN Canada exclude Quebec in their rules or run something separate in Quebec. Quebec does the same when they run a contest, it is usually only open to residents of Quebec.
Hi.
I noticed for Sweden, “In Sweden, all games of chance (sweepstakes and instant wins) are banned.”. I’m guessing that applies to a sweepstakes aimed at people in Sweden. If I live in Sweden, and have a sweepstakes aimed at people in other countries, excluding Sweden, would that be OK?
Ben
Any sweepstakes would need to be cleared by your attorney, but they will probably tell you to exclude Sweden and any other countries where sweepstakes are banned.
As of January 1, 2019, a new game law applies, where games about money require a license. However, a license is not required if participants do not have to pay a stake. This means, for example, that no license is required if you have a lottery where the participants only “like and share” to participate in the lottery on social media.
This new law in Sweden applies to gambling law. Gambling, per the definition, involves payment to play. The Swedish Gambling Authority does now allow companies to run lotteries, gaming and betting if they have a license from them. The kind of sweepstakes and contests we are discussing in this post are still under the same regulations, although games of chances on social are now allowed as long as they don’t involve prizes of cash or cash equivalent. See more at https://iclg.com/practice-areas/gambling-laws-and-regulations/sweden. If you are considering running a sweepstakes in Sweden we highly recommend calling us, or another sweepstakes expert to help guide you through the process and ensure that all laws are followed.
Hi.
In Russia,if the sweepstakes or giveaway is an item,then are there any problems.
Nikola.
What about Germany and Spain?
This list is not meant to cover issues in all countries. If you have specific questions about running a promotion in a specific country, contact us.
Can I sue a youtuber who does fake giveaways?? I won an iPhone but I was never contacted by him. He lives in Sweden. Can I make him give me the phone? What can I do about it?
If a promised prize was not awarded you should report it to the proper authorities.
When is a person considered to be “running” sweepstakes in a foreign nation? If the US-based person does not advertise the giveaway outside the US or only promotes it at a certain event…like a Conference or Tradeshow, are they still subject to all other countries rules? For example, if I am giving away an Apple iWatch at a Tradeshow in Chicago, and an attendee, who is a Canadian resident, enters and wins, would they be subject to Canadian rules, then?
This is why Official Rules are recommended (and legally required!) for every sweepstakes you run. Rules specify which countries your sweepstakes (or “giveaway”) entrants can come from and eliminates any confusion. Per your example, if a Canadian resident was selected as a winner in a US only promotion that had rules, then per the rules that Canadian person would be barred from entering and would need to be disqualified and a US winner selected. Without rules you need to look at your risk which may be low in this example, but you never know when a foreign government may try to make an example out of a brand running an illegal promotion. For more on why rules are important please see our post on the subject at https://www.mardenkane.com/articles/sweepstakes-rules-make-them-official.html
what if the rules allow for foreign citizens? If I am giving away an iPod at the conference, and someone is at my table and wants to enter, am I then subject to that person’s home country’s rule? Isn’t that akin to a marijuana dispensary in the Netherlands barred from selling to US citizens visiting because it is illegal in the US?
If you allow foreign citizens to enter then that DOES subject you to the laws of that person’s country in regards to tax reporting, data collection, sweepstakes law, etc. It depends on the country as to which laws apply.
How about Singapore? I noticed Singapore is usually also included in one of the prohibited countries
Is there such a sweepstakes and advertising agency calledHalifax Finacial Group?I think they are located in nova scocia canada.Are they a fradulent company?
Here is a web site for a company by that name. Try contacting them for more info. https://www.thehalifaxgroup.com/
if an online contest with servers held in international waters be considered imune to sweepstakes law
Short answer: NO.