A giveaway needs written rules, entry that does not use sharing or friend-tagging on Facebook, a free way to enter, disclosed prize value and odds, and a skill-testing question before the prize is awarded.

The giveaway post

A photograph of the prize, and underneath it: like this post, tag two friends and share it to win. Winner drawn Friday.

There is no closing time, nothing about who can enter, and no rules beyond the caption.

Posts like this are everywhere, and most break at least one of the platform's own promotion terms. Many also skip what Canadian law expects of anybody who gives a prize away by draw.

Neither is hard to get right. Treat this as a general guide to those rules, not legal advice.

Two sets of rules

The first set belongs to the platform. Facebook and Instagram allow promotions on conditions written into their terms, and a promotion that ignores them can be taken down.

The second set is the law. The Criminal Code limits how prizes can be given away by chance, and the Competition Act requires contests to tell entrants certain things before they enter.

What Facebook and Instagram require

The fourth is the one most small business giveaways break. Facebook's Page terms name share on your Timeline to enter, and tag your friends in this post to enter, as examples of what is not permitted.

Collecting entries through comments or likes on a post on your Page, or through messages to the Page, is allowed.

What Canadian law expects

The Criminal Code restricts giving prizes away by chance alone, and by chance combined with a purchase. Canadian contests answer that in two standard ways.

The first is a skill-testing question the selected entrant must answer correctly before receiving the prize. The second is a free way to enter, with the same chance of winning, so nobody has to buy anything.

A giveaway entered by commenting is free already. One where every receipt this month counts as an entry also needs a no-purchase route, such as entering by email.

The Competition Act adds disclosure: the number and approximate value of the prizes, the area covered, and anything that materially affects the chances of winning. It also expects prizes to be handed over without undue delay.

The skill-testing question

This is the arithmetic question familiar from the back of Canadian contest entry forms, and it applies to an Instagram giveaway as much as to a national sweepstakes.

It usually takes several steps, such as eight times three, plus twelve divided by four, minus five. A question anybody can answer at a glance does little to show skill.

Ask it once a winner is drawn, by message, email or phone, to be answered without help within a stated time. The rules should say that a wrong answer or no reply means another draw.

Keep a note of the answer given, and when.

A worked example

An escape room business ran a giveaway last summer: like, share and tag a friend to win a free game for six.

Hundreds of entries arrived, many from other provinces. The winner, drawn from a list of names, lived two provinces away.

With no rules, nothing required entrants to live nearby, and there was no basis for drawing again. The prize was handed over and never used, and the share-and-tag mechanism had broken Facebook's terms.

This spring the giveaway runs from a rules page on the business's website: BC residents aged 19 or over, set dates, the prize's retail value, the odds, and a skill-testing question.

People enter by commenting with the room they would try first, once each. Answering means looking at the rooms, which favours people who are actually interested over people commenting on reflex.

What the rules page says

The rules need not be long. One page covers a small giveaway if it answers what an entrant, or a disappointed entrant, would ask.

Who runs it, with a business name and address. Who can enter: usually the age of majority, which is 19 in BC, and the province or area it is open to.

How to enter and how often, when entry opens and closes, the prize and its approximate retail value, and how and when the winner is chosen.

The odds, which for a draw is usually a line saying they depend on the number of eligible entries received. Then the release, and the statement that Facebook or Instagram does not sponsor or run it.

Put the page on your own website. A Facebook post can link to it; an Instagram caption cannot, so it points to the link in your bio.

Entrants' details and your mailing list

A giveaway collects names, and sometimes email addresses and phone numbers. Privacy law expects you to say what they are for and to use them only for that.

Adding every entrant to the newsletter is tempting. Under Canada's anti-spam law, though, commercial email needs consent, and entering a draw is not asking for offers.

Ask separately, with a box entrants tick themselves, never one ticked in advance. Fewer people tick it, and the ones who do have actually asked.

Ask the winner before publishing their name or photograph, too.

The counter-case

Not every promotion is a contest. A free coffee for anybody who shows the post at the counter involves no draw and no winner, so contest rules do not come into it.

The paperwork should also match the prize. A gift basket drawn from local followers needs one clear page of rules, not months of preparation.

A large prize, a contest open across Canada, or anything tied to purchases deserves a lawyer's review before launch. Quebec, for one, has its own registration requirements for contests open to its residents.

Written rules, a free way in, the odds stated, and a question answered before the prize changes hands.

Before the post goes up

  1. Write the rules page before anything else.
  2. Limit entry by age and province.
  3. Collect entries by comment, not shares or tags.
  4. State the prize value and the odds.
  5. Add the release and acknowledgement lines.
  6. Ask the winner a skill-testing question.
  7. Keep entrants off the newsletter unless they ticked the box.

Step one makes the rest possible. The disclosures have to be available before people enter, and a rules page on your own site holds them in a way a caption cannot.

Whether European privacy rules also reach the details a giveaway collects is covered in does GDPR apply to a Canadian business.

Frequently asked questions

Can a giveaway ask people to share to enter?

Not on Facebook. Its terms give share on your Timeline to enter and tag your friends to enter as examples of what is not permitted. Comments or likes on a Page post are allowed.

Why do Canadian contests include a math question?

The Criminal Code restricts giving prizes away by chance alone. A skill-testing question that the selected entrant answers correctly, without help, is the standard way Canadian contests deal with that.

Does a free giveaway need a no-purchase option?

Entry by comment is already free, so it has one. Where entry is tied to buying something, there must also be a free way to enter with the same chance of winning.

What must the contest rules disclose?

The number and approximate value of the prizes, who can enter and where, the entry dates, how the winner is chosen, and the odds, usually that they depend on the number of eligible entries.

Where should the rules be published?

On a page of your own website, linked from the Facebook post and from the Instagram bio, since captions do not carry working links. The rules must be available before people enter.

Can I add entrants to my newsletter?

Only with consent asked separately, using a box they tick themselves. Entering a draw is not agreeing to receive offers, and Canada's anti-spam law makes consent a condition of commercial email.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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