Ad description
A post on the Facebook page for furniture retailer Knight Furniture, seen on 10 June 2017 stated "**The Winner is Jessica Holmes** Could You Please PM us to Claim Your Prize & Also Send Us a Picture Once You Have Received the Prize So We May Share It On Our Facebook Page".
Issue
The complainant, who understood that the post was related to a prize promotion for an ottoman and did not believe that the winner was genuine, challenged whether the promotion had been administered fairly.
Response
Knight Furniture Ltd stated that the original winner was picked out at random, and there were no means to ascertain the identities of entrants on Facebook. They stated they had re-run the prize draw again and provided a link to a website which they used to pick out a winner at random. They said that posts related to competitions and prize draws were deleted from their Facebook page after a winner had been picked. They stated that the winner was from the Birmingham area and that was all the information they held.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood from the complainant that the promotion referred to in the Facebook post related to a prize draw to win an ottoman, and that in order to enter, entrants were required to ‘like’ Knight Furniture’s Facebook page and comment on the Facebook post that advertised the prize draw by tagging family or friends.
We noted that Knight Furniture did not provide any documentary evidence of the entry of the original winner or that it had complied with the terms of entry. They also had not provided evidence that the original winner, or the subsequent winner when the prize was re-drawn had been selected in accordance with the laws of chance. Also, the prize had been awarded to the winner after the promotion had been re-run. In the absence of such evidence, we considered that Knight Furniture had not demonstrated that the promotion had been administered fairly or that the winner was a genuine entrant, and therefore concluded that it breached the Code.
The promotion breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 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. (Promotional marketing), 8.14 8.14 Promoters must ensure that their promotions are conducted under proper supervision and make adequate resources available to administer them. Promoters, agencies and intermediaries should not give consumers justifiable grounds for complaint. (Administration), 8.24 8.24 Promoters of prize draws must ensure that prizes are awarded in accordance with the laws of chance and, unless winners are selected by a computer process that produces verifiably random results, by an independent person, or under the supervision of an independent person. 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
We told Knight Furniture Ltd to ensure that future promotions were administered fairly, that they were in a position to demonstrate that the prizes were awarded to genuine entrants who complied with the terms of entry and in accordance with the laws of chance.
