Globalaw Insights 

The Asia Pacific region has experienced a noticeable increase in commercial sports teams recruiting athletes from outside their home countries. For instance, basketball, volleyball and football players in the Philippines are increasingly sought after by Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan clubs. Similarly, the recruitment of foreign student-athletes, primarily in basketball, volleyball, and football, is rising at the country’s universities and colleges. 

Yet, sports law remains largely unregulated in the Philippines and many other jurisdictions. The absence of clear legal frameworks often creates ambiguity regarding an athlete’s rights and obligations, and many are unaware of their legal protections and responsibilities.

This article explores the key issues and considerations affecting sports law in the Asia-Pacific region.

Contractual Protection

Too often, athletes sign contracts without fully understanding the long-term implications, leading to disputes over payments, sponsorship obligations, image rights, or contract termination terms.

Furthermore, the internationalization of sports has significantly impacted contractual agreements. Contracts involving foreign athletes often raise complex legal issues, such as jurisdictional considerations, applicable law, and cross-border enforcement.

Additional complications arise with young athletes, requiring parental involvement or representation, and raising concerns about consent, capacity, and enforceability.

As a result, athletes and stakeholders, including sports clubs and organizations, national bodies, sponsors, broadcasters, agents, and data providers, are increasingly engaging legal counsel and representation for contract negotiation, regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, and sponsorship agreements.

Athlete & Sponsorship Agreements

Athlete and sponsor agreements and media rights are essential elements of the commercial framework surrounding modern sports. Today’s athletes increasingly act as social media influencers, endorsing consumer products like cosmetics, food, and apparel. 

Athlete agreements typically include compensation, performance KPIs, image rights, media obligations, off-field conduct, injuries, and digital presence. Resembling talent agreements commonly found in entertainment, they tend to be heavily one-sided and complex, particularly when young or inexperienced athletes are involved, placing disproportionate control in the hands of sponsors, teams, or agents.

Sponsorship agreements usually include exclusivity clauses, activation rights, morality clauses triggered by athlete misconduct or reputational risks, and distinctions between team and personal sponsors.

In the Philippines, such arrangements remain primarily informal and are often carried out without written contracts. This lack of formal documentation exposes athletes to considerable legal and financial risks, including potential exploitation, misappropriation of likeness, and non-payment of sponsorship fees.

Media & IP Rights

As athletes continue to commercialize their personal brands, particularly through digital platforms, questions regarding the ownership and control of their name, image, likeness, and other Intellectual Property (IP) assets will necessitate careful legal consideration and clear contractual terms.

Events and competitions are increasingly monetizing sports data, highlights, and digital content, calling for sharper legal focus on trademark registration, licensing, and enforcement, especially regarding digital piracy, counterfeit merchandise, and unauthorized use of content online. 

Media rights involve various legal considerations, including territorial and platform exclusivity, live and non-live content rights, digital distribution protocols, and revenue-sharing arrangements between leagues and athletes. Key concerns include

• Who owns athlete-generated content on social media?
• How is it monetized?
• What happens when it’s shared or sponsored independently of the league or club?

Dispute Resolution

Dispute resolution in sports is increasingly managed through arbitration and mediation. Institutions like the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) are highly effective in preserving the integrity of sports by confidentially and efficiently resolving cross-border disputes and maintaining procedural fairness across jurisdictions.

Notable examples include doping appeals, disputes over athlete eligibility in international tournaments, and conflicts arising from broadcasting and sponsorship agreements.

Given the industry’s accelerating commercialization and globalization, regulatory bodies and legal counsel must stay vigilant in enforcing anti-corruption standards. This includes implementing whistleblower mechanisms, investigating match-fixing allegations, and adhering to codes of conduct set forth by international federations and national governing bodies.

Anti-Doping Laws

The global framework for anti-doping laws and compliance is primarily governed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which outlines the World Anti-Doping Code, a unified set of standards designed to promote fairness, integrity, and health in sports. Member countries and sporting bodies are required to implement these standards through domestic legislation and regulatory policies.

The Indonesia Anti-Doping Organization (IADO) rebranded in 2022 to function as a professional and independent body, crucial in lifting WADA’s previous non-compliance sanctions on the country. The National Sports Committee of Indonesia (KONI) has partnered with IADO to promote anti-doping education and campaigns at all sports levels, from national to local. 

Understanding IADO’s regulations and WADA’s standards is essential for ensuring athletes and support personnel are educated about anti-doping rules and compliant with testing procedures. Compliance also helps uphold integrity in sports.

A Specialized Law Partner You Can Trust

As the sports industry expands and professionalizes globally, the need for robust, adaptable, and forward-looking strategies becomes even more urgent. Whether addressing governance, commercial rights, athlete protection, or emerging digital challenges, experienced legal professionals are critical for shaping a transparent, fair, and sustainable sporting environment.

Globalaw’s Sports Law Taskforce is a dedicated advisory group of 22 member firms and over 30 attorneys in jurisdictions around the world. Through specialized legal counsel and representation that addresses multifaceted issues and cross-border needs, we help our clients develop and implement a legal framework that protects and empowers their interests for today and tomorrow.

Download the Globalaw Sports Law Taskforce brochure or contact me for more information about our capabilities.

An increasingly complex landscape for international trade is presenting new challenges for cross-border business. Geopolitical tensions, fluctuating tariffs, and diverging trade policies have introduced significant uncertainty for buyers and sellers internationally. The prospect of increased tariffs disrupts pricing expectations and predictability around international commercial arrangements. In this environment, the mitigation and management of potential tariff risks are paramount for cross-border businesses.

To this end, Incoterms (International Commercial Terms) are important tools to help mitigate risks associated with increased costs caused by tariffs. Incoterms are a set of globally standardized contractual terms used for risk and responsibility management between international commercial entities.

While Incoterms do not directly address tariffs themselves, they can be used to allocate cost and payment obligations to minimize trade disruptions caused by tariffs.

BACKGROUND

Originally developed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in 1936, Incoterms have evolved over time to address the changing demands of global trade. There are currently a set of eleven (11) internationally recognized Incoterms that are used to provide clarity and consistency in international trade contracts.

The latest iteration, Incoterms 2020, has been updated to reflect modern trade realities.

COMMON INCOTERMS AND TARIFF MITIGATION STRATEGIES

Some of the most common Incoterms used in commercial contracts for tariff mitigation strategies include:

1. Delivered Duty Paid (DDP)

In an unpredictable tariff environment, Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) is an ideal Incoterm for use by buyers seeking price certainty and risk protection from fluctuating tariffs.

Under DDP, the seller delivers goods cleared for import and ready for unloading at a named location. The seller is responsible for the costs and risks associated with final delivery, including the payment of tariffs.

DDP can assist buyers in uncertain tariff situations in multiple ways. Firstly, DDP provides price stabilization for the delivered goods by ensuring that the seller covers any import tariffs. This mitigates against price increases necessitated by changes in tariffs in the destination country. DDP also provides predictable costs by allowing the buyer to know the total landed cost before delivery. Finally, DDP can help to shield the buyer from uncertainty around the risk of increased tariffs during the transportation process. These factors make the use of DDP in commercial contracts particularly helpful for buyers by providing predictability around prices and costs.

2. Ex Works (EXW)

Ex Works (EXW) is an Incoterm that can be used by sellers who want to limit their tariff exposure. EXW is also helpful to buyers interested in managing tariff risks by taking advantage of potentially favorable tariff rates, depending on their location.

Under EXW, the seller ensures that goods are available for shipment at their premises, or another agreed-upon location. The buyer then assumes full responsibility for arranging shipment, transport and meeting customs regulations, including paying applicable tariffs in the importing country.

Under EXW, the seller’s responsibilities end once the goods are made available for transport, thereby limiting their tariff exposure. EXW also gives the buyer control to manage tariff risks based on their location. For example, if the buyer is located in a region with favorable tariff rates or subject to a free trade agreement, the buyer can import the goods at a lower tariff rate than may exist in other regions. EXW also presents opportunities for the buyer to arrange shipping routes with advantageous tariff rates.

3. Free on Board (FOB)

Free on Board (FOB) is technically an Incoterm applicable only to inland waterway transport but used commercially for other modes. FOB is particularly beneficial to sellers looking to minimize their tariff exposure throughout the shipping process.

Under FOB, the seller is only responsible for the costs of clearing goods for export and for their delivery onto a vessel for transport at a named port of departure. As soon as the goods are over the ship’s rail when loaded on to the transport vessel, the buyer becomes liable for risks and costs, including import clearance and tariff payment in the destination country.

Using FOB in commercial contracts minimizes the seller’s tariff risk. It also allows the buyer flexibility to take advantage of shipping destinations that may benefit from lower tariff rates and free trade agreements.

4. Free Carrier (FCA)

Free Carrier (FCA) is an Incoterm that provides flexibility to both the buyer and seller to collaborate on tariff mitigation strategies around advantageous delivery points that may benefit from lower tariff regions or trade agreements.

FCA allows the seller to deliver goods to a carrier at an agreed location, that can be chosen strategically to minimize tariffs for the buyer. Once transferred at the delivery point, the buyer assumes responsibility for import tariffs and customs clearance. FCA allows the buyer more control over customs procedures and can facilitate the use of shipping routes that minimize tariff exposure, depending on the agreed delivery point. Under FCA, both the seller and buyer can benefit from tariff risk minimization.

The use of Incoterms provides businesses with the opportunity to be proactive in managing commercial activities in the face of increasing tariff threats. Counsel can assist in identifying and implementing appropriate Incoterms to address specific considerations around optimizing supply chains, leveraging trade agreements and other risk allocation strategies to ensure smooth international transactions in the current global trade environment.

After seven years of processing, last August 26, the Congress approved the bill that regulates the protection and processing of Personal Data, creating the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data, corresponding to bulletins No. 11,092-07 and 11,144-07 (hereinafter, the“Bill”). This initiative implies a profound reform of Law No. 19,628, previously known as the “Law on the Protection of Private Life”. Therefore, preventive constitutional review by the Constitutional Court is still pending, as well as its subsequent promulgation and publication for it to enter into force.

Read more here.

The Philippines has long been considered the sick man of Asia. With repeated moves to open up its economy and liberalize industries in the name of development and foreign investments, the Public Service Act has finally been amended. This is the breakthrough that supposedly a lot of industries have been waiting for, the shipping industry included. This article aims to give a glimpse into what may lie ahead for shipping and its related businesses.

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Florida’s new law, the Conveyances to Foreign Entities Act (the "Act"), Sections 692.201 – 205, Florida Statutes, went into effect on July 1, 2023, and redefined the Florida real estate market for foreign purchasers from seven “countries of concern.” The Act requires those foreign purchasers to determine whether they are Foreign Principals prohibited from acquiring or owning real property in Florida, whether they are subject to registration requirements, or whether they are required to dispose of such real estate. Non-compliance renders the real property subject to forfeiture and sale of such real property (subject only to the rights and interests of bona fide lienholders) and risks daily fines of $1,000 and criminal penalties.

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Effective on January 1, 2024, the U.S. Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) will require “reporting companies” to disclose to the U.S. government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) details of their “beneficial owners”.

With the CTA, Congress has passed one of the most significant and sweeping laws affecting LLCs and companies doing business in the United States – covering both domestic and foreign entities – in the most aggressive effort to date against illicit terrorist financing, fraud and money laundering.

This client alert discusses the CTA’s reach and exceptions and disclosure obligations, which are retroactive and go well beyond any disclosure previously expected.

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Doing business in, or investing in, Australia may require an understanding of the goods and services tax regime (sometimes referred to as consumption tax, value added tax or goods and services tax). Here is a brief guide on GST in Australia for foreign businesses that may be about to do business, or invest, in Australia.

Read the full article by Ajay Ravi, McInnes Wilson Lawyers

Are you a New Zealand citizen (or member of a related entity) that has purchased residential-related property or land in New South Wales (NSW)? Are you a New Zealand citizen that is considering becoming an Australian citizen?

If so, there are certain new/revised measures and interpretations of the law and associated guidance which may have a significant impact on your Australian taxation position.

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With effect from 1 January 2021, the FATA was amended to (among other things) introduce the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets. It was contemplated in the amendments to the FATA that the New Register would come into effect at a later time. That later time was 1 July 2023. [...]

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Effective January 11, 2024, Canada will join the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the Apostille Convention.

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