Puerto Rican Consumers are available for US Sweepstakes participation.

Luis G. Rivera Marín, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO,) announced enactment of the country’s revised Sweepstakes and Games of Chance Regulation, effective November 26, 2009.

The new rules remove legal barriers that previously forced advertisers and other promoters to void sales promotions in Puerto Rico and to limit participation in many product and service sweepstakes to only residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. When effective on November 26, the regulation will provide Puerto Rico’s 2.9 million residents with broader access to the many chance to win participation opportunities available within the U.S. market.

“I am pleased to announce that the many practical complications U.S. advertisers previously experienced conducting sweepstakes in Puerto Rico, which routinely led to excluding our residents from participation in their promotions, are now behind us,” said Mr. Rivera. “For many years our laws made it impossible for companies to conduct national sweepstakes here, and consequently we have been excluded from the opportunity to take part in these potentially valuable promotions. We enter a new chapter now whereby our law adequately protects consumers without locking ourselves out of perfectly legitimate sweepstakes.”

Changes in Puerto Rico’s Sweepstakes and Games of Chance Regulation align the Commonwealth’s rules and definitions with regulations in the U.S. promulgated by the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and individual states. The new rules provide an updated definition of consideration; expressly exclude games of skill; standardize sweepstakes terminology; simplify the definition and publication of abbreviated sweepstakes rules; expand sweepstakes rule publication options; and remove previous requirements for certification by a notary public. Other changes remove requirements for certifying game pieces; remove the universal Spanish language requirement for sweepstakes ads; and remove the distinction between sweepstakes originating in Puerto Rico and those originating in other U.S. jurisdictions.

These changes will be a boon to U.S. advertisers who use sweepstake promotions in their advertising campaigns, as well as to Puerto Rican residents now able to vie for U.S. sweepstake prizes.

“DACO is grateful for the assistance of John Feldman, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Reed Smith LLP, an international law firm, and Gabe Karp, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of ePrize LLC, the worldwide leader in interactive promotions, who both provided the Department with a great deal of information and significant input and suggestions in redrafting the sweepstakes regulations,” said Mr. Rivera. “Without Mr. Feldman’s and Mr. Karp’s able consultation and guidance over the past several months, the opening of a vibrant Puerto Rican sweepstakes market for U.S. advertisers and our people would not have been possible.”

Puerto Rican officials reached out to Reed Smith, soliciting suggestions about further opening up its market to U.S. advertisers. “We immediately sought the assistance of one of our valued clients, ePrize, whose core business is developing incentive-based promotions including sweepstakes and other games of chance,” said Mr. Feldman.

“Together we generated suggestions for improving Puerto Rico’s approach to chance-based promotion regulation, most of which were incorporated in the revision and adopted,” added Mr. Karp. “As a result, Puerto Rico is now open for business, and companies can promote their brands and products there using chance to win promotions. The public hearing process confirmed that both trade and consumers are enthusiastic about the amendments.”

“Both Reed Smith and ePrize are cutting edge in the area of promotions, particularly in the cross border aspects of this advertising specialty,” said Mr. Rivera. “They provide aggressive and creative thinking, as John and Gabe did in helping us solve our longstanding issue with sweepstakes barriers.”