Lotteries and competitions

The company must provide the necessary information related to lotteries and competitions in its marketing. You have the right to be informed of the rules, operating instructions, competition period and the grounds for deciding the winner of prize draws and competitions. The company must state the rules and the winning criteria in the marketing material in which it has announced the prize draw or competition.

If lottery is announced in such a manner that you cannot participate in it immediately, the company does not need to state the rules in detail. The marketing must, however, clearly indicate where you can read the rules. In addition, they must be clear and easily accessible.

The prize draws and competitions must not predominate marketing; instead, the product must be the main focus of the advertisement. A company cannot build a promotional campaign of a product or a service solely on lotteries or competitions.

Overemphasising lottery prizes and winning opportunities in advertising is inappropriate

Provisions on lotteries with a charge for participation, such as money lotteries, are laid down in the Lotteries Act. The organisation of lotteries requires a licence, with a few exceptions, and they may only be organised by non-profit organisations domiciled in Finland.

The licensing and supervisory authorities are the National Police Board of Finland and police departments.

Children are not necessarily able to assess the message of the marketing. In addition, they do not have the capacity to understand the rules of promotional prize draws and the likelihoods of winning prizes in the same way as adults. For these reasons, children cannot be a target group for promotional prize draws or competitions if they can only participate by buying a product.

Prizes in prize draws targeted at minors must be age appropriate. In other words, the prize cannot consist of an X-rated product, such as a movie or console game with such rating.