Legal Aspects in Sports Sponsoring

The collaboration between sponsor and sponsored is regulated in a sponsoring contract. This is indispensable for a rights holder in every sponsor acquisition. With the contract, the sponsor and the sponsored party seal their partnership and their specific fulfillment in terms of services and counter-services. The basis for the design of sponsoring contracts is the general law of obligations regulated in the BGB (§§ 241–432 BGB). The general law of obligations stipulates that the two contracting parties (e.g., sponsor and sports club) can individually determine the content of the agreement made. Therefore, a sponsoring contract in sports does not require a specific contract form. This chapter outlines the contracting parties, types of contracts, forms, and content of a sponsoring contract in sports, as well as the regulations in case of disputes. In addition, tax aspects in sports sponsoring are discussed.