Summer of Sport—social media in sport

Table of contents

• Since 2011, the English Football Association (FA) has heard over 120 cases and issued over £350,000 worth of Twitter fines. What are the problems encountered by athletes using social media? Are such fines similar across the sporting world?
• How can sportspeople ensure they follow the rules in the Committee of Advertising Practices (CAP) Code in relation to marketing communication? How has this caused complications in the past? Will it cause additional complications this summer?
• How can athlete’s make sure the public is able to delineate between personal accounts and commercial accounts?
• Are there any additional legal issues involving social media that could cause problems this summer?

Article summary

IP & IT analysis: From the Euros to the Rio Olympics, the summer of 2016 sees athletes from across the world participate in a number of high profile sporting events. As part of our Summer of Sport series, Bruce Caldow, partner at Harper Macleod LLP, explores the effect social media has on the sporting world and the key issues likely to be present this summer.