The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about a competition run by online estate agent HarrisonCole, saying it had not seen evidence to demonstrate that the prizes were awarded to genuine winners.
A complaint was lodged with the ASA about the Bolton-based agency after the HarrisonCole Twitter feed promoted prize draws.
The first tweet stated "Enjoy Nandos on us!! We've 2 x £20 gift cards to giveaway! RT & Follow to #win winner on the day our websites goes live".
A further tweet stated "#COMPETITION TIME!! #WIN a WHITE #iPhone Power Case #RT & #FOLLOW to #WIN winner selected 1st August! X5 to giveaway! ... ".
An additional tweet stated "#COMPETITION TIME!! #WIN this WHITE #iPad Mini simply #RT & #FOLLOW to #WIN winner selected 1st August! ... ". The tweet included an image of the prize.
A further tweet stated "Good morning everyone still time to RT and FOLLOW! We'll be announcing ALL #WINNERS @9pm tonight!! ... ".
In its judgement, the ASA says the complainant believed a number of the winners were closely connected to the agent and challenged whether the promotions had been administered fairly, whether the winners had been selected by an independent person and whether the prizes had been awarded in accordance with the laws of chance.
HarrisonCole told the ASA that the prize draws were genuine, that the agency was not connected to any of the prize winners and that the winners had been selected by an independent person external to HarrisonCole.
However, the ASA upheld the complaint saying that although the agency commented that the draws were genuine we had not seen evidence to demonstrate that the prizes were awarded to genuine winners in accordance with the laws of chance and by an independent person or under the supervision of an independent person.
The authority's statement continued: In the absence of such evidence, we considered HarrisonCole had not demonstrated that the promotion had been administered fairly and therefore concluded that it breached the Code. The promotion breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 8.2 and 8.14 (Sales promotions) and 8.24 (Prize promotions).
The ASA has now told HarrisonCole to ensure future promotions are administered fairly.
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