Building society reprimanded over judging of prize competition

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that the advertised criteria for winning the competition were not the same as those used to actually judge the competition, and that it was unclear how the early stages of the competition were judged.

B&B advertised online for entrants to its competition for property woman of the year. It said: "Judging will be based on your financial nous, feedback from your tenants, how long it took to build your business, how you run it, and your personal drive and determination to succeed. We don't want much do we?"

A woman who was shortlisted in her region but did not win the competition complained about it, saying that she had not been asked to provide any evidence on which judging could be based.

B&B said that it had made sure that two out of the three judging panel members were not employed by the company, and that judges were given four categories on which to score entrants.

These were: overcoming personal obstacles; clear business strategy explained; taking some form of risk in their venture and overall success (evidence of making a reasonable profit on a property portfolio).

The company did admit, though, that these criteria were only applied to those who were shortlisted within their region and not to create the shortlists in the first place. The judging panel did not choose the regional shortlists.

The ASA, which has a remit to police promotions, said that there was not enough transparency about how the early stages of judging were conducted.

"The regional shortlists put before the judges were drawn from all entries in-house and … the process and criteria for regional short-listing were unclear," it said.

The ASA also criticised the competition because the judging criteria used did not match those that were advertised.

"The ad stated 'Judging will be based on your financial nous, feedback from your tenants, how long it took to build your business, how you run it, and your personal drive and determination to succeed'," said the ruling. "We considered that the four scoring categories given to the judges … did not map clearly onto the criteria set out in the ad. We noted the ad did not mention 'overcoming personal obstacles' or 'taking some form of risk in their venture' as judging criteria."

"We also noted that 'feedback from your tenants' was a criterion that had been applied only to the regional winners to determine the overall winner from amongst them, and considered the ad gave the misleading impression this criterion would be applied across the board," said the ASA. "We concluded that B&B had not satisfied us that they had administered the promotion according to the criteria stated in the ad and thereby dealt fairly with entrants throughout all stages of the competition."

Companies running competitions must abide by rules set down by the British Code of Advertising, Sale Promotion and Direct Marketing, known as 'the CAP Code'. Those rules include a requirement that competitions must be decent, honest and truthful, and that entrants must be given the criteria for judging entries.

As well as the CAP Code on dealing fairly with entrants to competitions, companies must abide by rules set down in the Gambling Act if the competition can be defined as a lottery, betting or gaming.

"Skill competitions and free prize draws remain outside the Gambling Act – but it is important to structure such competitions and draws so that they do not inadvertently fall within the definition of a lottery, betting or gaming," says OUT-LAW's guide to running a competition.

"Competitions that genuinely depend on skill, judgment or knowledge can continue to operate outside Gambling Act regulatory controls … [Where] there are several stages of a competition, the key is whether the first round satisfies the skill test. If those who complete a crossword puzzle successfully are entered into a draw to pick the winner, this will still qualify as a skill competition, not a lottery, because the first stage (completing the puzzle) satisfied the skill requirement," says the guide.