SWEDEN Law and Practice Contributed by: Karl Ole Möller, Nordia Law
Resellers Regulation which requires online plat - forms to conduct due diligence on sellers and provide clear information about ticket listings. This helps prevent fraudulent practices and ensures that consumers are aware they are pur - chasing from third-party sellers. 2.2 Sponsorship Sport in Sweden has a long tradition of being an independent voluntary movement (generally known as the Scandinavian or Nordic model) and has always been a popular platform for sponsorship from various business actors. The business community sees an obvious marketing advantage in being able to associate itself with well-known sports events, NGBs, leagues, local clubs or individual athletes. The commercialisation of the sports sector has been massive and fast-growing over recent dec - ades. The sports rights-holders (such as NGBs, leagues, event organisers, clubs and individual athletes) have become significantly more profes - sional and business-oriented and sponsorship is usually at the core of revenues. The key terms of a standard contract between sponsors and sport rights-holders are usually: • the duration of the contract; • the territory in which the sponsor can use the sponsorship rights; • the nature and scope of the sponsor’s rights (exclusive or non-exclusive rights to naming and title rights, advertising rights and official supplier rights, etc); • the use of the parties’ respective intellectual property rights; • the financial arrangements; • warranties from the parties (for instance, that the sport rights-holder owns and control all rights related to the sports event); and
• relevant termination rights. In individual sponsorship agreements, sponsors tend to protect themselves against serious sport - ing offences on the part of an athlete, such as doping and match-fixing. The sponsors some - times go further and require the use of a morality clause, which may give the sponsor additional protection against other moral issues on the part of an athlete (such as drug abuse, gambling and other behaviour that does not reflect the spon - sor’s brand values). In some cases, the morality clause can be reversed, enabling the athlete to terminate the agreement if the sponsor or the brand suffers reputational damage. 2.3 Broadcasting Broadcasting agreements are the most valu - able source of revenue for sport rights-holders. Streaming services on the internet and other new media significantly increase these revenues. The broadcaster usually has the exclusive pow - ers to licence public screenings of a sport event. Swedish law does not recognise independent proprietary rights to an event per se (see 3.1 Relationships ). However, event organisers will be able to restrict illegal broadcasting through control of access to the event and the terms of entry. The Swedish Copyright Act provides that radio or TV broadcasts may not be transmitted to the public without the consent of the broad - caster. Broadcasting rights in most high-profile sports are sold collectively by the governing bodies or the leagues on behalf of its member clubs. For example, Warner Bros Discovery holds the broadcasting rights for the Allsvenskan and Superettan football leagues. Another notable example is the four-year deal between Via - play and the Swedish Football Association (the “SvFF” ), which grants Viaplay exclusive rights
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