A Quebec man who signed up for a subscription with Time magazine because he was under the impression that he had won a big sweepstakes prize has been awarded $100,000 in damages.
Jean-Marc Richard sued Time Inc., saying he was embarrassed after discovering that in fact he didn't get a $1.2-million prize as a mailed Time promotion had suggested.
In a ruling Monday, a Quebec judge criticized Time for what she called a misleading direct-mail campaign. And while the U.S. publisher wasn't accused of contravening the French Language Charter, its letter violated the spirit of that law, wrote Madam Justice Carol Cohen of Quebec Superior Court.
Judge Cohen said that constituted an aggravating factor in the way she decided the damages.
"There can be no doubt here that the unsolicited publicity sent to Mr. Richard indeed had the capacity to mislead if viewed through the eyes of the average, inexperienced French-speaking consumer in Quebec," she said.
The case began in the summer of 1999, when Mr. Richard received an unsolicited letter from Time.
A big headline caught his eye. It said: "Our sweepstakes results are now final: Mr. Jean-Marc Richard has won a cash prize of $833,337.00!"
Mr. Richard did not notice a sentence in small print that preceded the big headline: "If you have and return the Grand Prize winning entry in time and correctly answer a skill-testing question, we will officially announce that...."
The letter was signed by an Elizabeth Matthews.
At the time, $833,000 (U.S.) was worth $1.2-million in Canadian currency. Mr. Richard sent back the letter, signing up for a two-year subscription.
When the prize didn't materialize, Mr. Richard called the Time offices in New York and was told that Elizabeth Matthews didn't exist.
"It is patently obvious to any reader that the mailing from Time was not only false and incomplete, it was specifically designed to be misleading ... especially to a reader who is not reading in his or her mother tongue," Judge Cohen said.
She said reading the Time letter was "the literary equivalent of trying to drive safely on a winding road after having been blinded by the headlights of an oncoming truck."
Though he regularly speaks English at work, Mr. Richard, a francophone now in his late 40s, showed the document to an anglophone superior at his office, who congratulated him on winning.
Mr. Richard testified that he felt "embarrassed and stupid" when he had to explain to his girlfriend and relatives that he'd been wrong when he told them he had won a big prize.
Time is expected to appeal the ruling.
