Amazon.com Clarifies Contest Rules to Include Same-Sex Partners

Sometimes it pays to ask.

Amazon.com is having a Tuition and Textbooks Sweepstakes, in which you can enter to win a grand prize of one year of free tuition (up to $25,000). The contest page says “If you’re not a student—but you have a family member who is—you may enter on his/her behalf.” After reading this, I looked at the official rules, which state “For the purposes of the Grand Prize, the winner’s immediate family includes his or her spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents and siblings.”

You can probably guess my next step—a nicely worded letter to Amazon customer service asking whether same-sex partners (or spouses not legal outside Massachusetts) could be considered “immediate family” as well. I first received a response from a lower-level rep who thought I was asking whether partners of Amazon employees were banned from participating, as are opposite-sex spouses of employees. He seemed happy to tell me partners were not considered the same as spouses in this case.

I then wrote back to ask more pointedly “whether Amazon is discriminating against same-sex couples by not allowing us the opportunity to enter for the grand prize on behalf of our partners/spouses.” That got my message bumped up the food chain, and I received the following message (in part) from Jennifer Hanner of Amazon.com’s Executive Customer Relations:

As you have correctly noted, the rules related to this sweepstakes do not specifically identify domestic partners as immediate family members.

In the event a winner of this sweepstakes wishes to apply the prize to his or her domestic partner – whether same-sex or opposite-sex – Amazon.com will apply an expanded definition of “immediate family” to permit the prize to be applied to domestic partners as long as the couple is able to provide proof of the relationship.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Given that even for other family members, “proof of the familial relationship between the winner and the student must also be provided,” I think the “proof” requirement for domestic partners is fair in this case. Because Amazon did not define “proof” as meaning only a domestic-partner certificate from a government authority, I assume they mean “domestic partners” in the sense used by most corporations that provide partner benefits, i.e., a couple living together in an exclusive relationship. If you live in a jurisdiction without an official way to register your relationship, I’d guess proof of mutual residence, shared corporate benefits, record of a commitment ceremony, or the like would work. Sounds like they want to be inclusive now.

I’m guessing most people will enter the contest on their own behalf, with some parents entering for their children. Still, for those who do want to enter on behalf of a partner in college, it’s nice to know you can do so just like an opposite-sex spouse. See the Amazon.com site for full official rules (though they haven’t yet updated them to include the “partner” option).