On 18 July 2024 and 21 August 2024, the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Villages will open, launching the Games period.
If you sponsor a French athlete who is part of the official selection, you will want to communicate about his/her victories and exploit his/her image.
Beware, though, as communication around the Olympics competitors is very restricted, even for their personal sponsors, especially for companies that are not an official partner of the Games.
Indeed, rule 40 of the Olympic Charter applies to competitors and, by extension, to their sponsors.
This Charter contains particularly strict rules on the use of the image of athletes taking part in the Games.
Thus, only advertising campaigns:
may continue in France under the same conditions during the period of the Games (prohibition to accentuate the campaign).
If you are involved in this type of "generic" campaign in France, you should declare it to the Committees by 18 June 2024 at the latest so that it can be continued during the Games.
If the advertising campaign has not been launched in France before 18 April, you will not be able to use the image of the athlete you sponsored in promotional campaigns during the Games period
In addition, during the Games, communication about sponsored athletes will be restricted to a single message on social networks.
Indeed, French athletes are limited in their communication around their personal sponsors to one thank-you message per sponsor on their networks.
Sponsors are also limited in their communication to sharing their athlete's thank-you message, in which they can congratulate the athlete on his or her performance.
So we recommend companies to discuss with their athletes and choose the right moment and, above all, the right victory to communicate!
Of course, none of these messages should contain Olympic properties unless you are authorized to do so.
Similar rules apply to athletes taking part in the Paralympic Games.
“Generic" campaigns using the images of French sponsored athletes taking part in the Paralympic Games must begin no later than 22 May.
If a company is not authorized to do so, we recommend not to use Olympic or Paralympic properties (for example :emblems, flags, mottos, symbols, anthems, logos, mascots, slogans, posters and vintages of the "city + year" editions of the Games; the terms "Olympic Games", "Paralympic Games", "Olympism", "Paralympism", "Olympic", "Paralympic","Olympiad", "Paralympiad", "Olympian", "Olympienne", "Paralympien" and "Paralympienne", and the acronyms).
French courts consider that there will be, this summer, a high number of legal actions by the Olympic Committees against all companies not respecting the above.
