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A settlement between a group of New York A&P supermarkets and the New York Attorney General over its sweepstakes marketing practices has ended in $38,000 in civil penalties against the grocery chain.
The chain is also required to make "dramatic" changes in the way it conducts sweepstakes, AG Eliot Spitzer said Monday.
A&P was alleged to have violated consumer protection laws by failing to provide entry procedures for customers not purchasing items from its stores, the AG's office said.
Spitzer said A&P had conducted a number of sweepstakes at its stores, but automatically entered only customers who purchased designated products using their A&P Bonus Savings Card. Consumers who did not make a purchase were unable to obtain an entry form. Prizes included a big screen television, a $500 shopping sprees, a ski vacation and tickets to a professional basketball game.
"Companies that use sweepstakes to market their products should be aware that, under federal law, consumers must be given the opportunity to enter and win the sweepstakes even if they do not purchase a product," Spitzer said in a statement.
Spitzer also said that the sweepstakes violated that state's Games of Chance Law because A&P failed to maintain a bond in an amount sufficient to pay for the total value of the prizes offered. It also failed to conspicuously post the rules and regulations of the sweepstakes at its stores.
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