It is important to outline in your competition terms and conditions who entry is open to. This is to avoid issues of people entering who you didn’t intend to enter and to make it clear to potential entrants whether or not they are entitled to enter. If you don’t make competition eligibility clear you could find yourself awarding a prize to a person to an unintended recipient; or you may receive queries from the public with questions on competition eligibility which could have been avoided.
The typical considerations for considering who can enter your competition are outlined below:
Location of residents
Age restrictions
Driver’s licence requirements
Is the entrant an individual or a business
No overdue monies owing to the promoter
Employee entrants
Other eligibility requirements
Typically, you will outline whether the entrant for your competition must be an Australian or New Zealand resident or resident of any specific State/Territory. You may also want to require the entrant to be a permanent resident or only a person with a VISA.
If you are conducting a game of chance promotion, the place of residence of an entrant may also impact where you will need to obtain permits. E.g. if you are opening entry to QLD residents only, no promotion permit will be required. If you open to NSW residents, a NSW permit is required.
It is important to outline the winner’s place of residence, as if the winner is located in an area unintended or overseas, you may need to organise delivery of the prize to that location which could be expensive. If a travel prize, this could also be a financial concern in terms of providing flights from their place of residence to the prize destination.
Most Common: Australian residents
For any trade promotion, age restrictions are always a consideration.
Social Media Competition Entry Requirement: Most social media platforms e.g. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, require a competition entrant to be aged 13 years or over to have an account. Therefore, you need to ensure you include this age limit in the competition eligibility requirements.
Valid Driver’s Licence required: If there is an element of driving required as part of the prize (e.g. hot laps) or entry (e.g. complete test drive), you will need to specify if the entrant must have a valid unrestricted driver’s licence.
Alcohol Purchase for Entry/Alcohol Prize: if purchase of alcohol is required for entry or alcohol is awarded as a prize, then you will need to specify that entry is restricted to persons 18 years or over. If you are awarding a trip to the US and the prize involves alcohol (e.g. visit to a brewery), you need to ensure you limit entry to persons 21 years or over.
Nature of prize or entry requirement: If the manner of entry or prize awarded is not suitable for persons under a particular age, ensure you include an appropriate age restriction on the competition. E.g. if an energy drink must be purchased, limit entry to at least persons 16 years or over.
Under 18: If entry is open to persons under the age of 18, you must ensure you include a clause which states any person under 18 must have parental or legal guardian approval to enter; as the child cannot provide their own consent to the competition Ts and Cs.
Car Hire: If car hire is included as part of the prize, check with the car hire company as to whether any age restriction applies. Most car hire companies will only hire to persons 21 years or over, with a full, valid and unrestricted driver’s licence. If this is the case, you will need to add this requirement as a condition of entry. If you only have one component of the prize which contains car hire (e.g. travel prize with car hire), you may specify if a winner or a travel companion does not meet this requirement they will forfeit their right to the car hire element of the prize. Please be aware that this approach is not always approved in SA, as they generally require that if a person is eligible to enter they must be able to take all components of the prize.