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In lugnet.dear-lego, Remy Evard writes:
> spontificus@__nospam__yahoo.com (Richard Franks) wrote in
> <FLoyHL.Gx7@lugnet.com>:
>
> > In lugnet.general, Mark Herzberg writes:
> > > In lugnet.general, Peter Callaway writes:
> > > > > The sweepstakes is only open to US residents.
> > > >
> > > > Hohum.....Yet another international company ignoring their
> > > > international customers by running a "US residents only" competition.
> > > > How many times have I seen that?
> > >
> > > I'm pretty sure that LEGO America, Inc, not TLC, is running the
> > > contest.
> >
> > You know, living in Europe, I see so many examples of this, and I have
> > to agree with Peters sentiment completely. Is there a *real* reason for
> > making it US only, or just laziness, or bad company inter-communication?
> > Because as a company that has world-wide distribution, I think they
> > could effectively send their new sets to any kid anywhere, with relative
> > ease.
>
> There are a lot of legal issues about how to run a competition
> in the U.S. Obviously lots of companies figure out how to do so,
> and end up using all the standard text and so on: "no purchase
> necessary", "void where prohibited", "no employees can participate",
> etc. I wonder how much of this is to follow laws and how much is
> in there to protect them from lawsuits.
>
> I'm not a lawyer and I don't know much about those rules,
> but I'll venture a guess here that running a worldwide competition
> would be hideously complicated from a legal standpoint (particularly
> for an international company). I'm sure it could be done, but
> I wouldn't be surprised if the cost were prohibitive enough to
> make it not worth doing.
Whilst that may be the case with international competitions, TLC has set up
regional head offices in all the countries it distributes to, staffed by
locals who (I assume) know all the legal pitfalls with running competitions.
Why can't they use this knowledge? Remember the Jedi quiz competition a while
back? It was open to LEGO Web Club members only, who could be anywhere around
the world. I remember seeing some non US winners in the lists (never me, which
peeved me somewhat!!) so we *know* that they can run international
competitions!!
I agree with the "hijack" statement. Who runs www.lego.com???? Is it TLC or
LEGO America Inc.?
Another sad issue this "sweepstake" highlights is the fact that companies need
to offer an incentive to their customers in order to receive consumer
feedback. This is doubly frustrating with TLC as there are so many AFOL's out
there who are itching to let them know some home truths and give them some
constructive criticism, and no way of officially doing it through the LEGO
website. True, they'd open up a can of worms if they made this feedback
facility available, but I think it's one worth opening. There are companies
out there who would donate vital organs to have the dedicated fan-base that
TLC enjoys (and takes for granted IMHO).
Pete Callaway
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: LEGO for Life Sweepstakes
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| spontificus@__nospam__yahoo.com (Richard Franks) wrote in <FLoyHL.Gx7@lugnet.com>: (...) There are a lot of legal issues about how to run a competition in the U.S. Obviously lots of companies figure out how to do so, and end up using all the (...) (25 years ago, 25-Nov-99, to lugnet.dear-lego)
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