Friday, June 01, 2007

Verizon and Reverse Auctions

Verizon Wireless now requires all premium billed reverse auctions to include some form of added value content (text alert, joke, trivia, etc.). This is due to the changing legal landscape causing reverse auctions to be considered as games of chance and no longer games of skill. Without the added value component, reverse auctions could be viewed as an illegal form of gambling in some states.

Although this provision specifically applies to reverse auctions (and not general sweepstakes), we do feel that the next step will probably be to extend it to premium billed sweepstakes. We encourage content providers to start modifying their premium sweepstakes and reverse auction campaigns accordingly.

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