Competition Fix?

[ACW]

Myself and Dave Barker recently entered a competition that will currently stay unnamed.

It had around 1000 entries and both of us managed to place within the top 25.

The top 25 entries were judged by a photographer working for international company X.

The winner is announced, and after some digging it's found they have worked for company X as freelance for 4 years, and have also been a competition administrator for company X. The winners relations also work for company X.

The announcement was made by company Y (who in association with company X were running the competition). After comments regarding the winners eligibility, as term one of their T&C's stated:

Terms and Conditions
1. Open to UK residents aged 18 or over, except employees of company Y UK and their immediate families, their agents or anyone professionally associated with this Promotion.

They then replied on their Facebook page to everyone:

We appreciate your queries about the eligibility of the winner of our xxxxx Competition. After a thorough investigation, we are confident that the winner, while having worked with xxxxx occasionally on a freelance basis, has never been employed by xxxxx and has no professional association with the judging panel. Thanks for your interest in our competition and we wish you the best with your photographic endeavours.

It's fact she worked for company X.

They have broken their own rules, and understandably the situation looks dodgy.

Any advice?

Any input on the matter would be appreciated? Perhaps (although I doubt it) we are making a mountain out of a molehill.
This isn't a case of sour grapes, I have spoken to several other runners up who feel the same and have expressed as such on the Facebook page.

Isn't this against either the CAP code or section 19 of the Unfair Trading
Regulations 2008

19. Claiming in a commercial practice to offer a competition or prize promotion without awarding the prizes described or a reasonable equivalent.

I.e as described would be following #1 of their T&Cs?

 

[DemiLion]

Before you kick off too much, you need to establish if

a) The winning entry actually stands up to inspection (ie could it be reasonably expected to win)

b) There was anonymity in the judging process

 

[ACW]

Before you kick off too much, you need to establish if

a) The winning entry actually stands up to inspection (ie could it be reasonably expected to win)

b) There was anonymity in the judging process

Thanks for the quick reply.

We don't know anything about the judging process apart from 1 judge from company Y and one from company X. I'd say the image is ok, there were better ones that could have won, but the image itself fits the competition brief and is well executed.

It's the entrant rather than the entry that's causing the issue.

We don't want to kick off for no reason, we just feel the outcome is unjust.

 

[admirable]

You're saying "It's fact she worked for company X". but if it's freelance she's not really been employed by them...........more likely self employed.

 

[ACW]

You're saying "It's fact she worked for company X". but if it's freelance she's not really been employed by them...........more likely self employed.

She was also a competition administrator / content editor for them which I presumed wasn't freelance. Regardless she's worked for them for them as freelance for 4 years which is association would you say?

 

[Mr Bump]

It does smell a bit but at the end of day what are you asking for?
I would put my complaint in writing or start a petition perhaps.

 

[ACW]

It does smell a bit but at the end of day what are you asking for?
I would put my complaint in writing or start a petition perhaps.

Well they are currently running the same competition for their AUS and NZ markets and are in the voting stage. It's not too late to prevent that becoming a sham.

Asking for something to be done about it. If the winner is not eligible for the prize then they shouldn't get it, they have an unfair advantage. The prize is fairly substantial, worth several thousand pounds. Either restart the competition from scratch or assign another winner.

I'm debating a letter, but think it would probably be fobbed off with something that didn't answer my question.

 

[Steve Smith]

It's their competition. They can award the prize to whoever they want even if their own rules have been broken, no law has.

By all means complain but I doubt that they are going to change their decision especially as they know and confirm the relationship between the winner and company X.


Steve.

 

[gramps]

Terms and Conditions
1. Open to UK residents aged 18 or over, except employees of company Y UK and their immediate families, their agents or anyone professionally associated with this Promotion.

As distasteful as it may seem, it does appear that if the winner was, in the past, a freelancer for Company X (not Y) then the terms have not been breached.

Unless I'm missing something

 

[srichards]

If their FB page says this person didn't work for that company and you know FOR A FACT AND CAN PROVE IT then I'd update their FB page with that information and point them back to the terms and conditions of their competition that clearly exclude that person from entering.

Then screenshot it.

Then contact AP magazine about it, particularly if the company go and remove your comment.

If the terms of the competition exclude her then they exclude her full stop. Doesn't matter whether the entry is any good or whether it is judged anonymously. It isn't open to certain people.

Whether it will do any good and you'll ever have a snowflake's chance in hell of ever winning anything is another matter though.

 

[Rankbadyin]

I stopped having any interest in so-called competitions when the UK Young Landscape Photographer of the year prize was awarded to a picture of a worn out chair sitting in a derilict room. When I asked for other opinions here I was told an empty room could indeed be thought of as a Landscape and the Judges were awarding the prize to some "Blue Sky" thinking.

I just enjoy my own pictures now where Landscapes actually have some Land in them.

 

[Pookeyhead]

So much sour grapes for not winning.


Does it really matter? So many more competitions out there. If you think you're good, enter the AoP Open.. still a few days left to enter I think.

 

[ACW]

It's their competition. They can award the prize to whoever they want even if their own rules have been broken, no law has.

By all means complain but I doubt that they are going to change their decision especially as they know and confirm the relationship between the winner and company X.


Steve.

I didn't think it was as simple as that? I thought the CAP code and Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 were around to prevent this kind of thing (amongst other things)?

Obviously more information is needed before deciding if these are applicable. E.g if the winner was predetermined before the competition started, or there was any other form of foul play.

As distasteful as it may seem, it does appear that if the winner was, in the past, a freelancer for Company X (not Y) then the terms have not been breached.

Unless I'm missing something

I was thinking they are 'professionally associated,' but obviously depends if they can breach their own rules.

If their FB page says this person didn't work for that company and you know FOR A FACT AND CAN PROVE IT then I'd update their FB page with that information and point them back to the terms and conditions of their competition that clearly exclude that person from entering.

Then screenshot it.

Then contact AP magazine about it, particularly if the company go and remove your comment.

If the terms of the competition exclude her then they exclude her full stop. Doesn't matter whether the entry is any good or whether it is judged anonymously. It isn't open to certain people.

Whether it will do any good and you'll ever have a snowflake's chance in hell of ever winning anything is another matter though.

Depends if they are bound to follow their own T+Cs, this seems to be a bit of a pivotal point.

I stopped having any interest in so-called competitions when the UK Young Landscape Photographer of the year prize was awarded to a picture of a worn out chair sitting in a derilict room. When I asked for other opinions here I was told an empty room could indeed be thought of as a Landscape and the Judges were awarding the prize to some "Blue Sky" thinking.

I just enjoy my own pictures now where Landscapes actually have some Land in them.

Haha, that must have been annoying. The one that won this competition was actually alright, not quite enough to make me lose faith in humanity.

So much sour grapes for not winning.


Does it really matter? So many more competitions out there. If you think you're good, enter the AoP Open.. still a few days left to enter I think.

Not really sour grapes, just don't appreciate being taken for a fool when it's possible that the contest result was decided before it even opened.

Yes it doesn't matter, and clearly the prize isn't going to be suddenly given to me, especially after kicking up a fuss, that's not what this is about. I'm doing this out of principle.

Not just me that's been saying this, the majority of the runners up have all said the same. I can genuinely say I was fine with the result when it was announced, I only got annoyed after finding out about the link with the company!

 

[gramps]

I was thinking they are 'professionally associated,' but obviously depends if they can breach their own rules.

It says 'professionally associated with this Promotion'

 

[Pookeyhead]

Many more competitions... don't worry about it. If it was a career making one, like the Fuji Awards, D&AD or AoP, yeah... get annoyed, but for anything else... just move on and look forward to the next one. There's nothing you can do about it anyway... complaining just makes you look bitter and desperate.

I'd just shrug my shoulders, and move on.

 

[PMN]

This thread just sums up why I have a deep rooted hatred of competitions.

 

[ACW]

It says 'professionally associated with this Promotion'

We were creatively interpreting that in our favour

Many more competitions... don't worry about it. If it was a career making one, like the Fuji Awards, D&AD or AoP, yeah... get annoyed, but for anything else... just move on and look forward to the next one. There's nothing you can do about it anyway... complaining just makes you look bitter and desperate.

I'd just shrug my shoulders, and move on.

Thanks David, as I said, it's nothing major, a mainly votes based 'popularity contest' style one. Easy photo library / email database build up for the promoter. I'm one of those people that gets wound up by these things, and then soon forgets about it. Starting a thread seemed a more interesting use of time than the essay I'm currently writing

This thread just sums up why I have a deep rooted hatred of competitions.

I better get back on with some actual work!

 

[ukaskew]

As distasteful as it may seem, it does appear that if the winner was, in the past, a freelancer for Company X (not Y) then the terms have not been breached.

Unless I'm missing something

That was my immediate impression, the whole 'professionally related' thing is a moot point if they work for company Y, not X.

Without knowing who the companies are involved, it's hard to argue the 'professionally related to this competition' bit either way.