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Second ‘win a house’ scheme sanctioned by ASA

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  • 26/06/2019
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Second ‘win a house’ scheme sanctioned by ASA
A second house lottery scheme has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority, after the operators changed the method of entry during the promotion.

Raffle House Ltd had previously required participants to purchase a ticket and then answer a multiple-choice question, with only those who got the question right entered into a draw to win a house.

However, in November last year it messaged all of its customers to notify them that they could now pay for their ticket to be entered into the prize draw after they answered a multiple-choice question correctly.

Complaints were raised over whether the competition was being administered fairly given the change.

The firm argued that they wanted to maintain set odds for those entering the competition by setting a threshold on the number of tickets to be sold, and did not intend to sell more than the threshold amount. After making the change, existing customers were given free entry into the competition.

The ASA upheld the complaint, noting that the change in entry method was unfair to those who had entered the competition under the original terms, while offering free entry to existing participants was unfair to new participants who would have had to pay for each of their entries.

A separate complaint relating to the lack of a prominent closing date for the competition was also upheld.

As a result, Raffle House has been ordered not to make further changes to the entry method of its competitions and to ensure that ads for promotions include all significant terms and conditions, including a prominent closing date.

Benno Spencer, founder and CEO of Raffle House, told Mortgage Solutions: “The ASA identified two minor issues in our communications. Once alerted to these unintentional errors, we immediately removed the post in question. We’ve taken on board all the ASA’s feedback about future marketing and have taken steps to ensure any such errors don’t happen again and with our next competition launching on the 1 July, we’re obviously very keen to abide by all rules and guidelines.”

It’s the second ruling in two weeks against a firm offering a competition where winners may get a property by the ASA. Last week it upheld complaints against Win A Mega Home after it gave away a £100,000 cash prize instead of the promised £3m house.

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