> Giveaway is marketing language, not a legal term. The three different things UK giveaways turn out to be, what each costs to enter, and how to tell which one you are looking at. Source: https://granddraws.co.uk/giveaways-uk --- # Giveaways in the UK ** Giveaway has no legal meaning in the UK. It is used for three different things: a brand promotion where entry is a follow or a share, a genuine free prize draw, and a paid competition with a ticket price.** The word will not tell you which one you are looking at. The entry route will, and that is the thing worth checking first. ## The three things the word is used for ### A brand promotion The follow-like-share kind. A company gives away its own product to raise its profile. Entry is an action rather than a payment. **Worth noticing:** There is rarely a published method for picking the winner and rarely a published number of entries, so there is nothing to check afterwards. That is normal for the format rather than a warning sign, but it does mean you are taking the result on trust. ### A free prize draw A genuine draw with no payment at all. Because nothing is paid to enter, it sits outside the licensing regime entirely and needs no skill question. **Worth noticing:** Check there is a closing date and a stated prize. A draw that never seems to close, or whose prize is described vaguely, is not really a draw. ### A paid competition called a giveaway The most common use of the word on competition sites. Tickets are sold, and the competition is lawful because it carries a skill question or a free postal route of equal standing. **Worth noticing:** This is the one where the checks matter: published ticket cap, free route that is easy to find, draw that goes ahead whether or not it sells out, and a result you can verify. ## Why the distinction is worth two minutes Because the three are regulated completely differently, and the difference decides what you are owed. A free draw with nothing to pay sits outside gambling licensing altogether. A paid competition is lawful only because it carries a genuine skill question or a free route of equal standing, and if it carries neither it is an unlicensed lottery. A brand promotion on social media is an advertisement, and the CAP Code expects its terms to be available before you enter rather than produced afterwards. None of which is visible from the word on the graphic. It is visible from the entry route, which takes about ten seconds to find and is the only thing that reliably tells you what kind of promotion you have landed on. ## What a promoter has to tell you Whoever runs it, some things are not optional. The promoter has to be identifiable: a real company name, not a handle. The closing date has to be stated. The prize has to be described properly rather than gestured at. And if entries are being collected, the promoter is handling personal data and has to say who they are, what it is for and how long it is kept. One specific thing is worth knowing because it is broken so often: **signing up to marketing cannot be the price of entering.** Consent to be emailed has to be a separate, unticked choice. An entry form that bundles the two together has got the law wrong, and it is a fair guide to how carefully the rest has been thought about. ## Where we sit in this We are the third kind, and we would rather say so than call it a giveaway. Tickets are sold, every competition carries a skill question, and [a free postal route](https://granddraws.co.uk/free-entry) takes exactly the same chance as a paid ticket. The ticket cap is published before entry opens, so [you can work out your odds before you spend anything](https://granddraws.co.uk/chances-of-winning), and the draw goes ahead on its closing date whether or not it sells out. We also run the second kind. [Our free draw](https://granddraws.co.uk/launch-draw) has nothing to buy and no catch to find, and [the other free routes are here](https://granddraws.co.uk/free-competitions). ## Common questions ### What is a giveaway in the UK? "Giveaway" is marketing language, not a legal term. In the UK it gets used for three different things: a brand promotion on social media where entry is a follow or a share, a genuine free prize draw with nothing to pay, and a paid competition with a ticket price. The word tells you nothing about which one you are looking at. The entry route does. ### Are UK giveaways free to enter? Some are and some are not, which is exactly the problem with the word. A social media giveaway is normally free. A free prize draw is free by definition. A competition site advertising a "giveaway" is usually selling tickets, and is allowed to, provided it also offers a free route carrying the same chance. Look for the price before you look at the prize. ### Do I have to be followed back or share a post to win? On a brand promotion, those are the entry conditions and you have to meet them. What a promoter cannot do is take your entry and then apply a condition you were never told about. The conditions have to be published before entry opens, and they cannot change part way through. ### What happens to my details when I enter a giveaway? A promoter collecting entries is handling personal data and has to tell you who they are, what they will use it for and how long they will keep it. Marketing consent has to be separate from entering: being signed up to a mailing list cannot be the price of an entry, and an opt-in cannot be pre-ticked. If none of that is anywhere on the entry form, that tells you something about how the rest of it is run. ### How do I know a giveaway is genuine? Ask who is running it and whether they are named, whether the closing date and the prize are stated precisely, and whether anything is published after the draw. A promotion that names a company, states a date and announces a winner has done the three things that cost an operator something. One that does none of them has not.