Prize Draw Promoters To Face The High Court
4 Comments January 11, 2010 / Posted in Legal IssuesCould the end of the Unclaimed Prize Register and Purely Creative Scratchcards be in sight? There’s interesting times ahead for the DM PLC owned Purely Creative Limited, Strike Lucky Games Limited, McIntyre & Dodd Marketing Limited, The Winners Club Limited, and Dodd Marketing Limited as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued High Court proceedings against the companies and individuals “in an attempt to prevent mailings and the distribution of scratch-cards which, the OFT considers, are misleading” (full press release).
The claims made by OFT, that include “they deceive consumers into believing they have been particularly fortunate to have been selected or to have won a prize” and they “omit information, or provide ambiguous information, about the chances of winning, costs of claiming, and terms and conditions of the prize draw”, are refuted by the companies involved and they strongly “believe that their promotions comply with the relevant laws and guidelines and have refused to cease their publication”.
According to the press release, an amicable agreement couldn’t be reached between OFT and the companies involved. It’s therefore now down to The High Court “to decide whether the promotions are unfair under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008″.
As yet no date has been set for a hearing!
No doubt the legal eagles will be informed that it is possible to win from a Purely Creative scratchcard. In January 2008 the first million pound winner was announced. It was their first in 18 years (and only one on 20 years). However, if the legal bods read this kind of article from The Guardian then they may well side with OFT and put paid to these kind of promotions once and for all.
OFT seeks court order against prize draw promoters
Firstly, it’s not a prize if you have to pay to receive it, ie it should be classed as an offer. Also, I’ve never yet scratched a set of those scratch cards and not won! ….. and I think I can safely bet that this applies to everyone else. The problem is that people who aren’t ‘in the know’ as we are could be taken in and believe they really have ‘won’!!! This makes for an immoral? promotion which shouldn’t be allowed.
I agree it’s not a prize I was daft enough to send for the so called holiday that I had been awarded only to find that it would cost me way over a normal holiday so when we declined the prize they were not very happy and pestered us with phone calls it should clearly state that you have a substanstial amount of money to pay for this award
I was caught by a bogus holiday several years ago.but thankfully havent been caught again
What I find of more interest than these ghastly scratch cards is the history and track records of the companies and individuals behind them. Look at the list of directors both exec and non exec and you can trace a thread back to the inception of some of the well known and equally cynical competition newsletters and get rich quick schemes.