How to choose a receipt validation provider in Europe: 8 questions to ask

Six things to check before you commit

Every vendor deck says AI, accuracy and scale. The differences show up in campaign week three. These are the eight questions that separate a component vendor from a partner who can carry a European campaign, and the answers you should expect.

1. Which receipt formats and languages do you actually cover? Europe prints receipts in hundreds of layouts and two dozen languages. Ask for coverage of the specific retail chains in your markets, not a global average.

2. Is validation end to end, or just OCR? Reading the paper is a component. Verifying product, quantity, window, retailer and market, and turning that into a payout decision, is the solution. Ask where their responsibility ends.

3. How many independent fraud layers screen each entry? One check catches amateurs. Layered screening, image forensics, duplicates, device and IP patterns, behavioural anomalies, catches organised abuse. Ask what runs on every single entry.

4. How fast is the consumer paid? Payout speed drives participation. Minutes for clean cases should be the norm; anything measured in weeks costs you conversion.

5. Who carries legal compliance per market? Terms, age gates, filing regimes and prize taxation differ across Europe. If the answer is "your legal team", the vendor is giving you a tool and keeping the risk with you.

6. What happens with winner handling and fulfilment? Verification, formalities and prize delivery are operational work. Ask who does it, and what it costs when it is not included.

7. Whose data is it, and how does it reach your CRM? Consent-first capture, documented opt-ins and structured exports should be standard. The participant data belongs in your systems, not locked in theirs.

8. Is the price fixed, or does it grow with success? Open-ended per-unit pricing punishes the campaigns that work best. Ask for an all-inclusive figure before creative starts.

Ask us the same eight questions: here is how FIBRE® answers them, or put us on the spot directly.