Ad description
An online sales promotion, on a trade and comparison website, viewed in July 2011, stated "Win up to £1000 in the eBitsi contest. We are excited to announce our first online contest, with the winner receiving £1000 in cash and runners up able to pocket up to £500 in cash. Entry to the contest is FREE and anyone is eligible to participate, it is not required for entree's [sic] to have an eBitsi.com account ... The aim of the contest is simple, entrants refer as many visits to the eBisti.com [sic] website as possible. The winner is the entrant that has referred the most visits at the end of the contest period. Prizes are also awarded to 9 runners up ...". Details about the competition stated "Contestants eligible for prizes will be contacted via email within 24 hours of the contest end. Prize winners will also be announced on the contest results page by name only and thier [sic] prize within 72hrs of contest end".
Issue
The complainant who was an entrant in the competition challenged whether the competition was genuine, because no winner’s details had been published on the website.
Response
ExtraCever Ltd did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by ExtraClever Ltd’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
We noted that we had not seen evidence that demonstrated that a winner had been awarded or that the prize winners had been published, and thereby that the competition was genuine. We considered that the promotion had not been conducted equitably or that ExtraClever had dealt honourably with participants, and concluded that the promotion breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay), 8.2 8.2 Promoters must conduct their promotions equitably, promptly and efficiently and be seen to deal fairly and honourably with participants and potential participants. Promoters must avoid causing unnecessary disappointment. (Sales promotions) and 8.28.5 8.28.5 Promoters must either publish or make available on request the name and county of major prizewinners and, if applicable, their winning entries except in the limited circumstances where promoters are subject to a legal requirement never to publish such information. Promoters must obtain consent to such publicity from all competition entrants at the time of entry. Prizewinners must not be compromised by the publication of excessive personal information (Prize promotions).
Action
The promotion must not appear again in its current form. We told ExtraClever Ltd to conduct their promotions equitably and fairly and to publish the names of competition winners in future. We referred the matter to the CAP Compliance team.
