COMMENTARY BOX

The GNLU Centre for Sports and Entertainment Law brings you the first newsletter for the year. This newsletter will be your one-stop solution for news from the field of Sports and Entertainment Law.

Twenty-three-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams has been fined $17,000 (₹12 lakh) for violating three codes during the US Open final, which she lost to Naomi Osaka. She was fined $10,000 for "verbal abuse" of chair umpire Carlos Ramos, $4,000 for being warned for receiving coaching and $3,000 for smashing racquet. Serena had called Ramos a 'thief' during the match. Serena denied cheating and asked for an apology from the chair umpire. She also alleged that the umpire’s penalties were sexist. Later, Serena’s coach admitted to coaching. However International Tennis Federation has backed the umpire.

Any communication, advice or instruction of any kind and by any means to a player is considered to be coaching as per International Tennis Federation Rules. There are certain instances where coaching is not permitted, for example when the players change ends after the first game of each set and not during a tie-break game. Chair umpire Carlos Ramos issued a code violation warning to Serena Williams at the US Open Finals against Naomi Osaka in the second game of the second set, after Ramos (and television cameras) observed Serena's coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, making hand gestures that appeared to suggest Williams move forward, presumably to rush the net. Williams' coach admitted to the act while stating that it is a rule that is flouted on a regular basis. The ITF Rules also state that "For the purposes of this Rule, a 'coach' shall also include any representative and/or relative of a player". It is important to also note that in most Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments, including US Open qualifying matches, coaching is actually allowed. There is a need to make the rules more uniform across the multiple Tennis tournaments conducted. There is also an imminent requirement to apply the rule Coaching Rule applicable to any given event consistently on all players as opposed to letting the rule violation slide for certain players.

More on this can be read here: http://www.espn.in/tennis/story/_/id/24618866/us-open-tennis-no-coaching-rule-grand-slam-tennis-let-change-it

Relevant ITF Rules: https://www.itftennis.com/technical/publications/rules/player-analysis-technology/overview.aspx

Brussels Court of Appeals held that the enforced arbitration of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is illegal. All appeals in sporting matters are authorized to be heard in domestic courts. The Brussels court considers that the arbitration rules set out in the statutes of FIFA, UEFA and their members, which oblige legal disputes to be heard exclusively by the CAS, violate article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights and article 47 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. This ruling affects all national and international sporting organizations by opening up the possibility to initiate action in domestic courts of their country against any sporting bodies.

More on this can be read here: https://en-as-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/en.as.com/en/2018/09/05/football/1536164687_519265.amp.html

The promoters of the India Cricket League had filed a complaint against the BCCI in 2013. They alleged that the BCCI imposed a number of restraints on them and later started a similar league of their own, the IPL. These restraints included a ban on players, directives to affiliated entities to terminate the employment of players associated with ICL, denial of access to cricket facilities. In addition, eligibility conditions for allocation of media rights for the IPL specifically excluded any bidder “involved in any litigation proceedings of any kind” with the BCCI, resulting in exclusion of proprietors of ICL. which denied them market access. The CCI ruled that the BCCI enjoys a dominant position in relevant market of organisation of professional cricket leagues in India and had systematically excluded the complainant from participation in this market by not recognising the ICL. In June 2018, the CCI found a prima facie case of abuse of dominance against the BCCI for restrictions imposed on the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

The order passed by CCI can be accessed here: https://www.cci.gov.in/sites/default/files/Case%20no.%2091%20of%202013.pdf

ICC Chief Executive David Richardson welcomed the latest development as a major milestone not only for cricket in the United States, but also the game globally and said “USA Cricket now has a governance structure and a high caliber Board that we believe positions the organization well to achieve its enormous potential. A successful U.S. cricket administration is great for world cricket and we are delighted with the quality of board candidates who have been selected from an incredibly impressive field and we think the global game will benefit from their expertise.” Three Independent Directors were announced for the governance of the body.

Netflix, Amazon and Hotstar are among the recently popular choices for watching programmes on demand. Currently in India, the laws relating to internet content is unregulated. Thus, piracy remains a large concern for the internet-video-streaming market, this affects the revenue for the players in the market. On the consumers end, the audiences of such streaming could be subject to inappropriate content such as hate crimes and hate speech. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting explicitly said in 2016 that it does not censor online content, nor does it have any plans to do so. There has already been a lot of flak faced by the Ministry for censorship over the past few years. The Ministry had formed a committee to regulate news and online content, but was soon scrapped after facing backlash from the media and industries. Albeit, reasonable censorship of online content is the need of the hour. A meeting was co-ordinated by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), calling the top players of video-on-demand (VOD) industry for self-regulation. As such, the details of the meeting have not been disclosed, but it is a step towards having a society with more civic sense.

Kumar Sanu, a Bollywood playback singer is in legal trouble as an FIR was filed against him for performing past the legal hours in Muzzafarpur, Bihar. The residents around the area were disturbed when the sound through loud speakers disturbed the localities. The FIR was filed against the organiser of the program. According to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000. Loud speakers or a public address system shall not be used at night (between 10.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m.) except in closed premises.

More on this can be followed here: https://www.indiatvnews.com/entertainment/celebrities-kumar-sanu-lands-in-legal-trouble-fir-filed-against-singer-for-performing-late-night-in-muzaffarpur-461486

Sony SAB TV’s “Namune” lands into legal soup for copyright infringement. The copyright infringement involved is due to the fact that the show is majorly based on the characters created by PL Deshpande, in his book “Vyakti ani Valli”. An amount of Rupees 50 lakhs has been asked for the compensation of this infringement. Currently, PL Deshpande is not alive, the copyright was passed to his wife by will, and she passed it by will to the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (UICAA). Section 51 of the Copyright Act, 1957, deals with copyright infringement. Copyright infringement essentially occurs when a person uses a copy of someone else’s work without having licence from that person or a competent authority. The reproduction of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work in the form of a cinematograph film shall be deemed to be an “infringing copy”.

EU antitrust regulators levied a record 4.34-billion-euro fine against Google on Wednesday for illegal restrictions on Android smartphone makers and mobile network operators. The European Commission ordered Google to end the illegal conduct within 90 days or face additional penalties of up to 5 percent of parent Alphabet's average daily worldwide turnover.