This book undertakes a critical examination of commercial rights to sports mega-events (focusing on sponsorship), the exclusivity of such rights and the legal implications of the modern mega-event sponsorship model. It examines ambush marketing of events and the law's treatment of ambushing (specifically in the form of sui generis event legislation) in a review of 10 major jurisdictions selected on the basis of the importance of the events they are to host in the near future or have hosted recently, and the relevant domestic legislation. It critically examines the legitimacy of such commercial rights protection by means of the use of laws in the context of accepted principles of intellectual property law, competition law and human rights law. Specifically, it questions the legitimacy of the creation of statutory 'association rights' to mega-events, and considers potential future developments in respect of the law's treatment of mega-event commercialisation. Valuable for practitioners and academics (in the fields of sportslaw/sponsorship/marketing/intellectual property law); sports administrators (sports governing bodies); corporate sponsors of sports and other events; potential mega-event host governments and law-makers; civil rights organisations.

This is the first book to focus critically on the legitimacy of legal responses to ambush marketing. It comprehensively examines recent sports mega-events and the special laws which combat ambushing. The approach of the book is novel. It does not blindly accept often-touted truisms regarding the illegitimacy of ambushing. The author argues that the debate concerning the ethics and legality of ambushing should be revisited, and that lawmakers have simply gone too far.

This book will likely raise eyebrows in sports business circles, and not all readers will be comfortable with the implications of the author's findings. It makes for an engaging read for anyone interested in sports law and the business of sport, including lawyers, academics, students, sports administrators and sponsorship and marketing practitioners, but especially lawmakers in sports mega-event host nations.

 

Dr. Andre M. Louw is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

 

This book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Robert Siekmann, Dr. Janwillem Soek and Marco van der Harst LL.M.