Canadian giveaway rules for creators (including the Québec change)

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A promotion open to Canadian residents is normally structured so that no one pays to be in a chance draw, the selected winner answers a skill-testing question, and the material details — number and approximate value of prizes, odds, and anything that materially affects the chance of winning — are disclosed adequately and fairly. Québec is the part most online guidance still gets wrong: the province's publicity-contest formalities, filings and duties were ended by a regulatory-burden reduction law assented to on 27 October 2023.

General information published by Dollar Fan Club — not legal advice. Read the full notice.

Canada does not have a single "giveaway act". Two federal statutes do most of the work — the Criminal Code, which restricts lottery schemes, and the Competition Act, which governs how a promotional contest is advertised — and until recently Québec added a provincial layer on top. That last part has changed, and a lot of published advice has not caught up.

Québec: the formalities ended on 27 October 2023

For decades, a promotion open to Québec residents meant notices to the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, duties calculated on prize value, French-language materials, and record retention. On 27 October 2023 the Act mainly to reduce the regulatory and administrative burden was assented to, and the Régie's own legislative-changes page describes its effect on this file plainly: it puts an end to the regulation of publicity contests. The Régie no longer administers a publicity-contest regime.

What that does not mean: it is not a licence to run a paid-entry draw in Québec. The Criminal Code and the Competition Act still apply across the whole country, and Québec consumer-protection and language law continues to apply to your advertising generally. What changed is the provincial contest-specific filing, fee and reporting layer.

The three things to design around

  1. No payment for a chance to win. Section 206 of the Criminal Code restricts lottery schemes, so the safe structure keeps a genuinely free route into every random draw — see alternate method of entry.
  2. A skill element for the winner. Canadian promotions conventionally require the selected entrant to answer a skill-testing question correctly before the prize is awarded. This is long-standing market practice rather than a line you can point at in one statute, and it is cheap to include.
  3. Adequate and fair disclosure. Section 74.06 of the Competition Act addresses contests where the material details are not adequately and fairly disclosed. The Competition Bureau's guidance sets out what it looks for.

What "adequate and fair disclosure" covers

The Bureau's material is worth reading in full, because the list is longer than most creators expect. In practice, disclose:

  • The number of prizes and their approximate retail value, in Canadian dollars.
  • The odds of winning, or the basis for them — commonly "odds depend on the number of eligible entries received".
  • Any fact that materially affects the chance of winning, including regional allocation of prizes or any extra entries.
  • The entry period with a time zone, and the regions entrants must live in — see eligibility.
  • That the winner must answer a skill-testing question, and what happens if they answer incorrectly.
  • Who the sponsor is and how to reach them.

Writing the skill-testing question

The convention is a four-step arithmetic problem — for example (12 × 4) + 30 − 8 ÷ 2 — answered unaided, without a calculator, within a stated window after the winner is contacted. Ask it after the draw, not at entry: it is a condition of receiving the prize, and putting it in front of every entrant adds friction without adding anything. Your official rules should say that a correct answer is required and how an alternate winner is chosen if it is not given.

Before you open entries to Canada

  • Decide the region deliberately: all of Canada, specific provinces, or Canada with an exclusion you can actually justify.
  • Publish the rules, the skill-testing requirement and the claim window before the first entry.
  • Keep the free route as visible as any paid route.
  • Record the draw and the winner's answer.
  • Get advice on provincial specifics if your prize value is significant, the prize is alcohol, or a brand partner is imposing terms.

Sources

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