Promotional contests in Canada (i.e., sweepstakes as they are referred to in the U.S.) are primarily governed by the federal Competition Act and the federal Criminal Code.
Other laws that commonly apply when running contests in Canada include CASL (Canadian anti-spam law) (if entrant information will be used for electronic marketing), intellectual property law (e.g., if entrants will submit original material as part of participating in the contest or a contest sponsor uses third party intellectual property as part of the contest) and privacy law (relating to the collection and use of contest entrant personal information).
The main elements when running a promotional contest in Canada are generally short and long contest rules setting out the rules for the contest, a winner release form (which is particularly important in higher risk contests, such as trip contests or high value prize contests), review of draft creative materials before a contest is launched to ensure that the contest marketing is not false or misleading and, if the contest sponsor wants to use entrant information for e-mail or other electronic marketing, complying with the consent and other requirements of CASL (Canadian anti-spam law).
CANADIAN CONTEST/SWEEPSTAKES
LAW SERVICES
Our Canadian contest/sweepstakes law services include advice relating to the application of the Competition Act and Criminal Code to promotional contests, CASL (anti-spam law) advice where electronic marketing will be used as part of the contest (e.g., entrant e-mails collected for later marketing), drafting short and long contest rules and statutory disclosures, reviewing draft contest marketing and advertising materials for advertising law compliance, drafting winner releases, compliance with the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act, compliance with social media platforms’ terms of use and drafting co-sponsor and influencer agreements (e.g., where there are multiple sponsors or prize sponsors or influencers or other third parties are involved in the marketing or administration of the promotion).
For more information about Canadian contest law, see: Contests, Contests and CASL, Contest Law FAQs, Contest Forms/Precedents, Contest Law Tips and Contests and Social Media.
REPRESENTATIVE CANADIAN
CONTEST/SWEEPSTAKES WORK
Some representative examples of our Canadian contest/sweepstakes law work includes:
Drafting short contest rules, long contest rules and winner release forms for many companies, associations and governments (i.e., destination marketing contests), Canadian advertising law advice for draft contest creative/advertising materials, helping clients structure contests to comply with the Competition Act, Criminal Code and CASL (Canadian federal anti-spam law), reviewing draft consent requests for later electronic marketing to contest entrants, drafting contest related agreements (e.g., influencer, co-sponsor and contest indemnity agreements), advice relating to social media platform contest and promotion related terms of use and working with U.S. contest/sweepstakes counsel for cross-border contests open to both Canadian and U.S. residents.
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CONTEST RULES/PRECEDENTS
Do you need contest rules/precedents
for a Canadian contest?
We offer many types of Canadian contest/sweepstakes law precedents and forms (i.e., Canadian contest/sweepstakes law precedents to run common types of contests in Canada). These include legal precedents for random draw contests (i.e., where winners are chosen by random draw), skill contests (e.g., essay, photo or other types of contests where entrants submit content that is judged to enter the contest or for additional entries), trip contests and more.
Also available are individual Canadian contest/sweepstakes precedents, including short rules (“mini-rules”), long rules, winner releases and a Canadian contest law checklist.
The following are the Canadian contest/sweepstakes precedents, forms and checklists that we offer:
- Canadian Random Draw Contest Package
- Canadian Skill Contest Package
- Short Rules (Random Draw Contest)
- Short Rules (Skill Contest)
- Long Rules (Random Draw Contest)
- Long Rules (Skill Contest)
- Winner Release Form
- Canadian Contest Law Checklist
- Facebook “Like” Random Draw Contest Package
- Trip Contest: Random Draw Contest Package
- Trip Contest: Skill Contest Package
- Winner Releases for Trip Contests (Winner & Guest Release)
- Guidelines For Consumer Generated Content Contests
- Contest Indemnification/Influencer Agreement
- Facebook and Instagram Language for Canadian Contest Rules
For more information and to order, see: Contest Forms/Precedents – I and Contest Forms/Precedents – II.
