To
avoid liability under section 52(1)(a) of the
Competition Act mail solicitations should not
be drafted in such as manner that they may cause
recipients to be under the false general impression
that they have won a significant prize. For
example, solicitations should not include language
in prominent format and in large font stating
"We Will Deliver a $1,000,000 cheque" which
is qualified by language "if you are declared
our winner" that appear in a less conspicuous
location in the document in much smaller font
size.
Contest rules should be adequately and fairly
disclosed to comply with section 59 of the Act.Issues
arise under the Act when contest rules are disclosed
in very small font size in locations of the
solicitation that consumers would not likely
notice them. For example, some solicitations
have included the contest rules on the inside
portion of the solicitation's envelope. As you
can appreciate, many consumers would discard
the envelope without noticing the contest rules.
In other cases, contest rules have been placed
on the reverse side of documents included in
the solicitation without being referenced elsewhere
in the solicitation.
Many
solicitations state in the context of promoting
a large prize, that the recipient is a guaranteed
winner. This may provide recipients with the
impression that they are guaranteed to receive
the large prize. The solicitations, however,
state in their contest rules that the odds of
winning a nominal prize are 100% and that the
odds of winning the large prize are remote.
This raises issues in two respects. Firstly
that the solicitation may provide the false
general impression that the recipient has already
won the large cash prize. Secondly that it is
misleading to refer to a recipient as a guaranteed
winner. |
Using
the term winner implies that there are winners
and losers and it would be misleading to refer
to all recipients as winners.
We are also aware of many solicitations, such
as the ACG solicitations you referred to our
attention, that invite the recipient to call
a 1-900 telephone number and be charged the
applicable rates to determine which prize they
have won. The issue under the Act, in addition
to the issues discussed above, is whether proper
disclosure has been made of the cost of this
phone call. The disclosure of this information
should be made in a prominent fashion and the
disclosure should include the cost per minute
and the duration of the call or the total cost
of the call.
In addition, contest promotions must also be
lawful in relation to the Criminal Code, other
federal or provincial statutes and local by-laws.
Businesses wanting to rely on such promotions
should therefore contact legal counsel to ensure
compliance with these jurisdictions.
As you know, the Marketing Practices Branch
of the Competition Bureau promotes compliance
with the Act through the Program of Advisory
Opinions, which provides non-binding opinions
on prospective advertising and other promotional
plans. This program may be of interest to your
members and I encourage them to take advantage
of it. If any of the CDMA's members wish to
receive an Advisory Opinion on any of their
advertising or other promotional plans, my staff
are prepared to assist them. |
