Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: sweepstakes rules

Lotteries are illegal; and even the No Purchase Necessary contests are legally complex, especially since this would involve alcoholic beverages. There are companies and law firms that have specific expertise in running contests, use one.

Re: sweepstakes rules

You will need to include the "no purchase necessary" rule, but there are ways to accomplish your goal while still complying with the sweepstakes law. Feel free to contact me, and I would be happy to point you in the right direction.

Yours truly,

Bryan

619.400.4929

Re: sweepstakes rules

The criteria by which a charitable organization escapes the Penal Code provisions making lotteries illegal are rather tight, and include a requirement that the organization itself sell raffle tickets and receive at least 90% of the gross proceeds and use the proceeds for its charitable causes. (Penal Code section 320.5). The charity must have been in business for at least one year before conducting the raffle and must be an eligible tax-exempt organization under state law.

The Penal Code (section 319) defines a lottery as 'any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property by chance, among persons who have paid or promised to pay a valuable consideration for the chance of obtaining such property or a portion of it......'

Using a lottery or raffle as a means to move 10,000 cases of wine (or any large amount) seems unlikely to be both legal and effective. There is the further likelihood that the ABC or TTB people will find that it violates one or more of their rules.

I'm a former winery founder and owner (BW #4803) and in my opinion the chances of having your licenses suspended or revoked is too high to warrant trying to design a lottery that may or may not technically be just inside the limits of the law.