Competition terms and conditions
You need to publish terms and conditions (T&Cs), for any marketing/sales competition you plan to run. This is applicable to a game of chance as well as a game of skill.
The promotion's terms and conditions is a legal document which is intended to outline the responsibilities of the entrant, and the promoter, and should clearly establish the expectations and responsibilities of each party.
A chance based competition, or a so called trade promotion lottery, requires terms and conditions that are compliant with the jurisdiction where the competition will run. Most promotions tend to be "National" meaning that the rules will need to adhere to the separate laws and regulations of each state and territory in Australia.
For a chance based promotion, the terms and conditions need to be submitted to the government as part of a permit application (a permit to operate a game of chance is required by some of the states, including NSW, SA and ACT). Click here to learn more about permits.
How to draft compliant competition terms and conditions
All terms and conditions should generally include:
- Promoter name, ABN, address
- Start and end date/time of the competition
- Prize details, values
- How (including any conditions) to enter
- Date, time and method of draw
- How and when winners will be notified
- The method for claiming prizes (including any requirement to be in attendance at the draw)
- How the results will be published
- Unclaimed prize draw details
- Competition permit numbers (if chance-based)
- Purpose of collection of information
If the promotion is a game of skill, specific information about the process of judging the entries, should be included.
Some Australian states require specific information to be included if the competition prize is of a certain category. For example, in NSW, promotion/competition terms and conditions that involve travel as a prize, should include:
- Number of persons who can travel (eg winner and their guest)
- Travel prize inclusions (eg air fares, transfers, other transport, duration, accommodation standard, spending money)
- Travel restrictions (eg block out dates)
What are abridged competition terms and conditions?
The states in Australia require you to include the promotion terms and conditions in any advertising material (eg poster, EDM, billboard, etc) which promote the competition. In most cases, this is not practical because of limitations of physical space. It is therefore acceptable to include only the most relevant information and then refer the entrants to the full set of T&Cs. For example, South Australia (SA), typically require the following, at a minimum, to be included on your artwork:
- The name and address of the promoter
- Duration
- How to enter the competition
- Description and value of prizes
- Number of draws, date, time, location of draw
- How and when results will be published
- Permit number(s)
- Reference to terms and conditions (eg a website address)
Competition terms and conditions template
TPAL offers an easy and fast way of drafting compliant terms and conditions for your competition. Just complete our guided online promotion wizard and you will be able to instantly generate a customised Word document specific to your promotion. We offer terms and conditions for games of chance and games of skill as well as abridged T&Cs.
