Why are your Educircles promotions only open to teachers in the US and Canada (excluding Quebec)?

I love giving away Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards. It’s nice to be able to help another teacher out. Especially, when it’s not expected and I just send it to them.

Teachers love receiving free gift cards. It’s nice to be able to buy something from the TpT marketplace without having to spend more of your personal money on your classroom.

So, why am I excluding so much of the world? Especially when I talk about the importance of diversity, equity, and all that jazz!

Great question.

It’s because every country, province, and state gets to set their own rules and regulations to protect their citizens.

I sell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. This means I’m a small business. As a business, I have to make sure I follow the law when I run promotions.

(Please note, nothing in this blog post should be construed as legal advice. It’s just my understanding of how things work. Please seek out independent legal counsel to answer your questions!)

Giving away gift cards is considered a promotion. I have to follow the law. For example, competition laws, privacy laws, copyright laws, moral rights, etc.

If I do a random draw and give away a prize, I have to make sure I’m not running an illegal lottery. (That’s why on contests, you see the phrase, no purchase necessary. In Canada, it’s also why you see that a skill-testing question is often required.)

So, right now, based on the legal resources that I have, I’m limiting my Educircles TpT gift card giveaways to the US and Canada, excluding Quebec. (Sorry Quebec. I don’t have the translation and compliance resources to be able to include Quebec yet…)

How much does it cost to get the legal resources to run a contest in a specific part of the world?

To put this in perspective, look at this website. If you go through the forms to get a quote about running a contest in the US and Canada (excluding Quebec), you can see it will cost $1500 (USD) to get a set of official rules and abbreviated rules to ensure legal compliance.

As Educircles grows, I hope to be able to afford the legal resources I needed to include more parts of the world in my TpT gift card giveaways.

The world is a big place. I’m looking for input about which legal jurisdiction I should add to my promotions next. Australia? New Zealand? The UK? (Those are next in areas where people have purchased Educircles products.)

If you are interested in participating in an Educircles promotion or TpT gift card giveaway, but you can’t participate because you don’t live in the US or Canada (excluding Quebec), please email me at [email protected].

Thanks for your understanding!