Originally Posted by
SPN Lifer
Entrapment is prohibited as a matter of U.S. constitutional law in criminal prosecutions by the government.
There is nothing in the MileagePlus™ Terms and Conditions, nor in state or federal civil law, that precludes United Airlines (UA) from trying to root out violations of its terms of service in this fashion.
The punishment is merely loss of one's MileagePlus™ account, or possibly the privilege of flying UA, not incarceration.
Yes, I understand the difference between criminal entrapment and a company enticing it customers to break the T&Cs.
But for the latter, the bad optics. the bad PR for such enticement / entrapment could go very badly in the viral public internet space -- and yes, the word entrapment is what would be used. Not every legal term is restricted to it legal meaning in common parlance. The public understands that basic concept of entrapment and would be very unforgetting of a company doing that to its customers.
The first definition in the Oxford dictionary for entrapment
"
the state of being caught in or as in a trap."
The second definition
is the more legal definition
"the action of tricking someone into committing a crime in order to secure their prosecution.