Unhappy about promotional codes

this is a bit that has always kinda got me upset. as someone from south africa we automatically normally fall into the "europe" category when it comes to gaming simply cause it makes sense since we are in the same timeline. so i went onto mmorpg.com and i see they are giving away promotional codes to unlock constumes for City of Heroes.. and i cant get one.. cause i dont live in europe or the states (not yet i will next year..) my point it why is it always like this ? why do the rest of the countries get screwed out of stuff like promotional codes with games ? our money is good enough to buy games but we are not allowed to take part in promotions ?? how does that work exactly?? i just think it's unfair and i am actually unhappy about how this is always handled. can staff from CoH please explain this to me ?

My understanding is that most of the contest geographic restrictions are to do with the laws about contests and giveaways in different countries. The usual reasons some places are excluded are:

1. The competition rules would be illegal there.
2. There are not enough customers there for it to make financial sense to pay lawyers to vet the contest rules for legality in that jurisdiction.

Also, when it's a secondary site like MMORPG.com doing the giveaway, I believe they are the ones that set the rules for the contests if I remember the explanation we were given for a previous contest on an outside site.

Yes, it's for a giveaway of content in this game, but the other site is the one actually holding the contest, not CoH.

You might have better luck asking MMORPG.com why they have this restriction on their contest.

I would also like to point that for EU *account holders* the link is http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/...ay-Europe.html

*edit* At time of posting, there were only 19 codes left the EU.

*2nd note* That is if the costume giveaway is the Alpha and Omega costumes.

In terms of the code giveaways though, they split it as EU and US region codes. There are *no* regulations for code giveaways as far as i know. However, as soon as it is a competition to win one (ie email to win one of 10 codes), then there are rules and regulations to follow. Giving them away to anyone (until said codes run out) doesn't constitute a competition.

Did I miss a new giveaway? What code are we talking about here?

Ah, yeah, I see. I got that one two months ago. I misread and thought he was talking about a newer one. Carry on.

Its a pain, yes, but as others have said, its (mostly) due to the way local laws come into play.

If you offer a promotion (online, TV, mail, telephone, etc), you're responsible for making sure that it is legal in every place it runs. Different regions have different rules. Usually, they're intended to protect consumers from predatory "promotions" and/or gambling laws, etc. Some places do it to protect local businesses- prohibiting "foreign entities" from offering such promotions without having a local presence. Some just do it to rake in fees for doing business in their country.

Regardless, it all means "we need lawyers." Worse "we need lawyers fluent in each nation's laws that we want to run x in." .... and since this is a promotion, not something that'll make a lot of money, "we need em cheap."

Bring on the mathematical 'skill testing' questions!

Seriously Canada, would it really be so bad if people could just give stuff away without first making us answer 4 x (6-3) - 2?

But yes, this is a country-by-country thing which is why these types of contests are usually confined to North America, excluding Quebec (HA!), since the contest lawyers know the applicable laws.

In this particular case, the giveaway is being hosted by MMORPG, so it's their rules.

In general: It's not just Non U.S. and E.U. countries we're unable to facilitate giveaways in. Some states and Canadian provinces have local laws that make any sort of giveaway with a cash value either extremely difficult or out and out impossible (New York and Rhode Island for example...and Quebec as has been previously pointed out). Even without a cash value, there's limitations with what we can do.

We have to run each of our contest rules past our legal department prior to announcement, so they all take a considerable amount of time to put together.

In MMO's this is pretty much as standard, 14 years ago I used to play a game called Meridian 59, the same thing happened which resulted in a mass exodus from EU and Oceania players, the result was the game folded (shame really, was a legend in it's time). Shockingly 14 years later companies still haven't learnt the lesson to be able to work around these simple things. Outside of Asia, MMO's will not last basing it's market towards 1 country and needs the support from others continents to thrive and develop, especially when the game is designed towards a niche market.

I would also like to point out (at least for the UK), that any prizes that are won from "Worldwide" competitions are sent from outside the EU, are subject to import tax *edit* which is payable by the reciever of the item

"Gifts" are only applicable when sent by an individual, and NOT a company. If it has a value greater than £40 then import VAT must be paid. If valued over £135 then customs duty must be paid in addition to import VAT. This means that prizes can get expensive for recipients fairly fast (MY other half had to pay £20 on a £20 model as import VAT. HMRC are the ones who set the import VAT payable.

I am not sure how other countries run, along with their import rules and regulations, but it is something that has to be taken into consideration for each and every foreign country that you are planning to send prizes to.

This is why most companies and even website competitions tend to run lots and lots of "local" (as in bound by the rules and regulations of the country that the competition is based in) competitions, and only very few companies run "worldwide" competitions. Those that do, i found a world wide Coca Cola one a while back, tend to use their local branches to run it in each country, and then it went on from there. Yeah, it *isnt* easy to run a "world wide" competition.

Even then, you, as a prize winner, can be caught out with having to pay (sometimes quite a bit) to claim your prize as it gets held up in customs.

And competitions in each nation have their own rules (as a quick rule of thumb, here is a *brief* outline of some of the rules for UK competitions linkage You actually have to work through the laws that it references to see what applies properly, but at least it gives an overview.

I do not know how other countries are limited by competitions (and what they are allowed to give away, if the prize winner is responsible for taxes due etc etc)

As stated up in my earlier post: Code giveaways generally slip past all regulations as there is normally no real world value that can be applied to them, and as long as it is a "giveaway" ie 1st 5000 people to click the link to get a code it avoids a lot of competition rules and regulations. I will be honest, i am not sure how this would work with "Microtransaction" currency giveaways though... i havent seen any of them around, so cant say what it would entail.

*edit* just to clarify on the "having to pay import tax"... here is *part* of the costs that can be incurred

£0.01 to £15 No customs duty
No Import VAT

£15.01 to £135 No customs duty
Import VAT due


£135.01 and greater Customs duty due, but waived if the amount calculated due is less than £9
Import VAT due

((There are exceptions here, in that Tobacco/Perfumes and Toilet Waters/Alcohol do not get exempted, even if valued less than £15