More details to this question:
I want to sell a short supply of digital goods on my website, but because of the limited stock and due to the various time-zone differences, I would like to give my customers a fair and equal chance of ordering one, rather than offering a "first come, first serve" deal. My idea is to announce the item on the website and have those that are interested send me an email. If the interest is higher than what I have in stock, I will "unlock" the item from my online store for a randomly selected customer base 24 hours after the announcement - allowing those who were selected to purchase it. My question is if this could potentially be considered as illegal sweepstakes? I am mostly interested in US and EU laws, but how do I know what applies in other countries? Thanks.
1 ANSWER
I don't know the answer. I suspect that technically it probably could be found to be an illegal lottery. The definition probably talks about anything of value given to a random winner, and the opportunity to buy something at a favorable, below-market price, counts as something of value.
Who is going to complain? I don't see any government bothering you about it. A consumer could only sue you for the difference between the full market price and your bargain price. Even as a class action, it woud be that difference multiplied by the number of units of the item which you disclosed on your website as being available for sale. If you did not disclose that number, I guess it could be the price difference times the total number of people who asked for the item and were turned down.
That could be a big number. Maybe your website should reserve the right to withdraw sales. If too many people respond and are going to be rejected, then you could cancel the sale and re-offer it at a higher price, and cut down the number of people asking for it and getting rejected.
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Dana Sack
Answered on Dec 22nd, 2014 at 11:57 AM