Sec. 622.101. CONNECTING SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY OR OPERATION TO ORDER OR PURCHASE. (a) A person conducting a sweepstakes may not use a mechanism for entering the sweepstakes that:

(1) has any connection to ordering or purchasing a good or service;

(2) is not identical for all individuals entering the sweepstakes; and

(3) does not have printed on the entry form, in a font size at least as large as the largest font size used on the entry form, the following language: "Buying Will Not Help You Win. Your chances of winning without making a purchase are the same as the chances of someone who purchases something. It is illegal to give any advantage to buyers in a sweepstakes."

(b) A person conducting a sweepstakes may not:

(1) require an individual to order, purchase, or promise to purchase a good or service to enter the sweepstakes;

(2) automatically enter an individual in the sweepstakes because the individual ordered, purchased, or promised to order or purchase a good or service; or

(3) solicit business using an order form or purchasing mechanism that has any role in the operation of the sweepstakes.

(c) Subsections (a)(1) and (b)(3) do not apply to a single sheet of paper that contains both a sweepstakes entry form and an order form if:

(1) the order form is perforated or detachable; and

(2) the entry form must be separated from the order form and returned to a different address than the order form.

(d) Subsections (a) and (b)(2) and (3) do not apply to a sweepstakes offered to promote a credit card or debit card if the official rules of the sweepstakes provide that consumers are entered in the sweepstakes based on the number of purchases made or the amount of money spent. The exception provided by this subsection applies only to a person offering a sweepstakes who qualified as an issuer as of January 1, 2001.

(e) Subsections (a) and (b)(2) and (3) do not apply to a company offering a sweepstakes in which the consumer must go to a physical location to obtain or use the goods or services being sold by the company.

Added by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 885 (H.B. 2278), Sec. 2.01, eff. April 1, 2009.