Athletes’ image rights – just business or infringement of personality rights?

In a consumer-driven world where social media is growing rapidly, companies are constantly searching for ways to introduce their products to the clients. One of the most effective ways of doing so is through the use of athletes’ image. Using athletes’ image without the proper legal ground, can bring troubles, though, as was recently made clear by the controversial Zlatan Ibrahimović and other football players.

Is the use of the athletes’ image rights strictly commercial, or are their personality rights infringed as well? How (if at all) is the use of image rights regulated? Is there a better way to regulate it? All these issues are discussed by Timotej Kotnik Jesih in his article “Commercial exploitation of athletes’ image rights” published in the Pravna praksa magazine (pp. 11-13) on 26 November 2020.

The full article (in Slovene) is accessible here. You are welcome to read it!