Explanation of Article 404
The article clarifies the provisions related to who can commit to the reward in a competition contract, and the competition contract does not lack three scenarios:
The first scenario: Some of the competitors, but not all, commit to the reward; whether the commitment is by one or more; and the ruling for this scenario is permissibility; because every competitor except the one not committed to the reward may lose without gaining the other.
The second scenario: The commitment to the reward is by a person or more who are not competitors, such as when the organizing body of the competition commits to it, and this is the most common in competitions. The ruling for this scenario is permissibility; because all parties to the contract, the one committed to the reward and the competitors, are not at risk of losing or gaining.
The third scenario: All competitors commit to the reward; whereby each competitor commits to give the reward to the other competitor in case of winning, and the ruling for this scenario is impermissibility; because every competitor is at risk of losing or gaining.
It is worth noting that the prohibited scenario in the third case is when all competitors commit to the reward; however, if the competition has expenses and each competitor bears their share of these expenses, it does not fall under the prohibited scenario in the article.
Related To
Article 404
The obligation to provide the award in a competition may be borne by some of the competitors or by a third party; it may not, however, be borne by all the competitors.