Hidden Prizes, Real Risks: What to Know About ‘Digital Easter Egg’ Contests This Easter

Alongside the Advent season, the Easter period is peak season for competitions on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms. Influencers and companies entice their followers with hidden “digital Easter eggs”, “crack the egg” and other embedded and interactive search and competition games, in which new prizes are raffled off daily, or organise large-scale Easter-themed campaigns. What many people don’t realise is that behind these seemingly simple competitions lie numerous legal requirements, and failure to comply with them can quickly leads to warnings and legal consequences.

Transparency is key

Any influencer organising a competition must ensure clarity. Competition law requires that the terms and conditions of participation are stated transparently, clearly and unambiguously. Participants must know exactly what they are getting into before taking part.

The following should be stated: the organiser’s name, the exact entry period, the eligibility criteria, a description of the prize, the method of determining the winner, and when and how the winners will be notified. This information must be easily accessible – ideally directly in the competition post or via link.

The prize must actually be awarded

A principle that may sound obvious but is of central legal importance: the advertised prize must actually be awarded in the end. It is unlawful to run a competition without the intention of awarding the prize or an appropriate equivalent. Anyone who breaches this duty of care risks receiving warnings and facing injunctions.

No fiddling with the rules

Changing the rules whilst the competition is running is problematic. Whilst the terms and conditions of participation can, in principle, be amended, this is only permitted with effect for the future. Anyone wishing to reserve the right to make amendments should state this explicitly in the terms and conditions of participation.

Caution regarding entry fees

In principle, participation must also be free of charge. If a fee is charged for participation and the winner is determined by chance, this can quickly cross the line to gambling, which requires a licence and may, under certain circumstances, be a criminal offence. For a long time, a participation fee of no more than 50 cents was considered unobjectionable. However, recent case law takes a more critical view: in 2022, the Cologne Administrative Court ruled that even amounts of 50 cents can constitute gambling. In parallel, in 2024 the Higher Administrative Court of Münster, drawing on the criminal law case law of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), applied a loss limit of ten euros per hour as the threshold for gambling. Only standard transfer fees, such as postage or normal telephone charges, are unproblematic.

Advertising or not? The labelling requirement

During the Easter period, influencers frequently also organise competitions in cooperation with companies that provide the prizes. In such cases, the competition has a clear promotional nature and must be labelled accordingly as ‘advertisement’ or ‘promotion’. Otherwise, there is a risk of being accused of surreptitious advertising. An overly promotional presentation of the prize can also be problematic and should be avoided.

Instagram-specific requirements

Instagram has its own requirements for competitions. The platform’s promotional guidelines require a disclaimer: participants must be informed that the competition is in no way connected to Instagram, that Instagram is neither the organiser nor the sponsor, and that questions regarding the competition should not be directed to Instagram.

TikTok – Guidelines

Similar to the guidelines on Instagram, TikTok also sets out clear. Among other things, competitions must be free for participants, may not offer cash or gift cards as prizes, and are usually subject to a value limit of 500 US dollars per prize. Official features such as the ‘Live Giveaway’ tool should be used for this purpose. Furthermore, posts must be clearly labelled as advertising and the terms and conditions must be linked in an easily accessible manner. In addition, participation is generally restricted to adults, and content must not be specifically targeted at children.