Sweepstakes, Contests or instant winner games

VT Omit Postage
Posted by Kathy on April 21, 2006

We recently had an interesting discussion with an attorney about VT residence needing to add postage when requesting a winners list. The statement sent to our company from the clients attnorney is as follows: Our regulatory counsel has confirmed with the VT Attorney General that VT Administrative Code Section 109.01(b), relating to Consumer Fraud, Contests and Prizes, addresses the return postage issue: “It shall constitute an unfair and deceptive trade act and practice in commerce under 9 V.S.A. section 2453(a) for any person to solicit any person to engage in any kind of game of skill, contest sweepstakes, give-away or other promotion which: (a) is deceptive or misleading as to chances of winning, the number of winners, the value of the prizes, or the availability of the prize; (b) requires any kind of entry fee, service charge, purchase or similar consideration in order to enter or to continue to remain eligible; or, (c) uses publications, literature, written or verbal promotion that is false, deceptive or misleading.” Although it’s not clear from the Code, the AG has interpreted (b) to cover postage relating to requests for winners lists, and has issued several opinion letters explicitly stating as much.

What have you advised clients regarding this subject? We had been advised by council that omitting postage was only regarding game piece request to participate.