How do you run a legal Facebook contest?

In practice they don't only mean running it within the law, but also (and maybe above all) within Facebook's own rules. What should you keep in mind if you don't want to get on the wrong side of the platform's admins?

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• Contests decided by a prize draw have to be registered with the Krajowa Izba Skarbowa — otherwise they are illegal.
• Every contest needs a formal set of terms and conditions.
• You can't require a like on the post, a share or a tagged friend as a condition of entry. Facebook's terms forbid it.

What should you watch out for when running a contest on Facebook?

You can come across contests on Facebook whose aim is to steal personal data. Cases like that are of course removed quickly by the platform's admins, but even with the best intentions you can still fall foul of the people who police content against Facebook's rules. So what does it take to keep your contest from being “taken down”? Here are the key things to keep in mind:

• Write the contest terms — spell out for people how the promotion works and what they have to do to take part. Who is eligible to join in?
• Don't pick winners by drawing lots — that requires permission from the Krajowa Izba Skarbowa. Otherwise you're breaking the law and facing a fine of up to several million zloty!
• Set a task — one that's within reach of your fans. Don't set a goal that isn't achievable. The conditions of entry have to be realistic. That protects people from promotions where the contest task can't be completed and where, in practice, the organizer may only be after exposure on social media, with no intention of rewarding anyone.
• Put the rules for choosing a winner in the contest post — how the winner will be selected should appear in the terms.
• Don't make excessive activity on FB a requirement for entering the contest — you can't expect people to like the page, share the post or tag a friend to be in with a chance of winning. A contest post like that can be removed by Facebook. You can't put personal timelines to work either, meaning you can't require people to share the material there in order to enter the promotion.
• Make clear that Facebook is not a sponsor of the promotion — that has to appear in the contest terms. At the same time, state who the organizer is. There should be a full release of Facebook from any responsibility for running the promotion or handing over the prizes.

Contest prizes

You now know how to run a legal Facebook contest, but there are still obligations to remember once you have a winner. Prizes are taxed at 10 percent. So state in the terms who is responsible for paying it — you or the winner. Be clear as well about how many people will be rewarded, and by when entries have to be in to be considered when the winners are chosen.

What should the terms of an FB contest include?

A legal contest that follows Facebook's rules needs the right set of terms. Every promotion on social media may call for different clauses. Most often, though, these are the ones that belong there:

• Information on how personal data is processed.
• Details of the promotion's organizer.
• Information on the conditions attached to the prizes on offer, meaning how to enter the promotion and what it takes to win the Facebook contest in question.
• The closing date of the contest and when the winners will be announced.
• A note about the tax on the prize.
• A clause stating that entering means automatically accepting the terms.
• Provisions on the author's economic rights — where the promotion calls for them.
• The complaints procedure.

In every case, though, the terms have to be fitted to the particular contest. That has to be done individually. Don't settle for an off-the-shelf contest template — have a lawyer who specializes in this area go over the wording. Name the organizer of the contest and whoever is funding the prize, and set out how complaints are to be filed.

Running a lottery on Facebook

First, let's be clear about how running a lottery differs from running a contest. In a lottery, who gets the prize comes down to luck, because the winner is drawn. The winners of a contest, on the other hand, are the people who perform the task best — they're picked on the quality of their entry, and the picking is done by a person or people appointed by the organizer.

The conditions of a contest and the rules around it aren't set out in legislation; running a lottery is. That is covered by Poland's gambling act, the Ustawa o grach hazardowych, specifically Article 2, “Gry hazardowe” — gambling games. It tells you that the outcome depends on chance, and Facebook's own terms say that whoever is responsible for running the contest has to see to registering the promotion where that is required — that is, where it takes the form of a lottery. With an unregistered lottery, having the contest removed by the platform's admins may be the least of your problems, because it can also carry legal consequences.

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