Starting September 30, all prize-based promotional activities for alcoholic products and sugary beverages in Cambodia will be completely banned. According to Instruction No. 011 from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and information released by the General Department of Taxation, relevant businesses must complete their adjustments before September 30.
The scope of prohibited promotional methods is broad, including not only consumer-familiar "bottle cap prizes" and "pull-tab prizes," but also lotteries, scratch cards, coupons, prize redemption cards, QR codes, and other online digital reward formats.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance had previously required that relevant producers, importers, and distributors may not continue to order, import, or produce bottle caps, pull-tabs, and other packaging featuring prize-based promotional designs. At the same time, businesses are also prohibited from giving away alcoholic products or sugary beverages for free through promotional activities.
However, normal commercial discounts have not been completely banned. According to regulations, general trade discounts may not exceed 15% of the invoice sales price; for products with no more than 60 days remaining before expiration, discounts may reach up to 25%. Businesses must notify the General Department of Taxation before applying these trade discounts.
In addition, businesses may still offer other goods or services as promotional benefits, such as cups, umbrellas, ice buckets, drinking water, clothes, hats, or travel packages, but the value of such benefits may not exceed 5% of the invoice sales price.
This means that from now on, common practices such as "scan-to-win" and "open-cap prizes" when consumers purchase alcoholic products and sugary beverages will gradually disappear from the market, and corporate promotional methods are set to undergo adjustments.