Olympic Games Paris 2024 and Ambush Marketing

With a budget of over 4 billion euros, the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are largely funded by various official partners and sponsors, who in return have the right to use Olympic and Paralympic properties to associate their own image and distinctive signs. However, the protection granted – legitimately – to sponsors, while extremely important, is not total, and the media and financial interest of such large-scale events encourages certain companies without a contractual link to the event to attempt to « savagely » associate their brand with the event through a practice of « ambush marketing. »

Jurisprudence defines it as an « advertising strategy implemented by a company to associate its commercial image with that of an event and thus benefit from the media impact of said event without paying the relevant rights and without having obtained prior authorization from the event organizer » (Paris Court of Appeals, 2nd Chamber, June 8, 2018, No. 17/12912). A risky and sanctioned practice but sometimes conceivable.

Key points to remember:

• Ambush marketing is a sanctioned practice but not inherently prohibited;
• In return for their investments in the relevant event, official sponsors and partners benefit from very important legal protection, through various general texts (counterfeiting, parasitism, intellectual property) or more specific ones (sports law), against all forms of ambush marketing;
• The Olympic Games are subject to specific regulations that further strengthen this protection, especially in terms of intellectual property;
• However, these rights are not absolute, and there are still slim opportunities for a cunning practice of ambush marketing.

The protection of sponsors and official partners of sports or cultural events against ambush marketing is an important issue.

To read the full article published on Legalmondo regarding the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Ambush Marketing, please click here.