Running contests and promotions must be honest: a lawyer answers what you face for forgeries

Contests and promotions announced on clinics’ websites or social networks are usually an excellent way to better engage and interest your clients.

Contests and promotions announced on clinics’ websites or social networks are usually an excellent way to better engage and interest your clients. The whole essence of the process is to prepare a contest or promotion that does not mislead and is valuable to the person who wins it. Lawyer Naglis Narvidas answers what happens when contests or promotions are forged.

By running contests or promotions, clinics and other companies attract clients’ attention, draw them into the content
and familiarize them with the advertised products or services. This is more a solution for increasing recognition
than a sales tool. Žygimantas Kvartūnas, marketing manager of the integrated marketing agency „Expertmedia“,
agrees that the offered gift or prize must be
useful to the customer, and the conditions for winning – not complicated.

„We must act honestly and not try to be cunning, because otherwise we may damage
our reputation. It is not advisable to try to give the prize to one’s friends or acquaintances, because today customers
are smart and can understand when a contest is not transparent. The most important thing in contests and promotions is to be
an honest business, to actually offer value and benefit,“ – the marketing manager elaborates.

Legal requirements apply to contests, promotions or other similar activities organized by various clinics and
other companies. First of all, the rules of the contest or promotion must be clear, the procedure for determining the winner, the upcoming prize. Any ambiguities may be considered
as misleading advertising.

During the running of contests or promotions, personal data may be processed only with consent.
This is also confirmed by the State Data Protection Inspectorate, which states that one cannot include
a person in a contest or promotion without their consent.

According to Naglis Narvidas, lawyer at the professional law firm „Cortex Legal“, consent can
be obtained in various ways. One can obtain written consent in which specific
information about the contest or promotion would be provided. Marking a certain place (called
a „tick box“) on a website may be considered as consent. Next to it, information and conditions must be provided
about the contest or promotion and about the privacy policy. The company’s Privacy policy must contain
information about the processing of the patient’s personal data during the running of contests or promotions.

It is also possible to announce contests or promotions on social networks. Such a post must contain
information that the personal data of participating persons will be processed on the basis of consent,
and more about data processing can be found in the company’s Privacy policy.

In all cases, organizing fictitious contests and promotions or unlawfully including a customer in them – without their knowledge – is prohibited. If these requirements are violated, a company faces not only sanctions from relevant state
institutions – the patient gains additional leverage even in cases where, for example,
there is a dispute with them about payment for the services provided.

During such disputes, patients quite often, with and without justification, recall their rights
provided in the General Data Protection Regulation or other legal acts. Companies may be
reported to the State Data Protection Inspectorate and other state institutions. N.
Narvidas says that the validity of such reports depends on whether the company properly conducts
its activities and implements the requirements of legal acts.

Having fulfilled all the requirements of legal acts and properly informed the patient about the processing of their
personal data, the company can feel confident that it has not committed any violations of legal acts.