Guilty until proven innocent: the 'Olympic' element of the advertising regulations for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

• Author: Kala, Kaman

1. Introduction

   New regulations governing the use of advertising and trading in the vicinity of the Olympic 'event zones' was introduced in December 2011. The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Advertising and Trading) (England) Regulations 2011 (the regulations) have been made under the authority of sections 19 and 25 of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, as amended by the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Act 2011, which received Royal Assent on 14th December 2011 (the Act).

   One can assume that the principle objective of the advertising regulations will be to reinforce the protection against the phenomenon of ambush marketing. Ambush marketing involves a business organisation's attempt to capitalise on the goodwill, reputation and popularity of an event, by creating an association with the event, without the authorisation or consent of the organisers (Scaria 2008, 29). (1) The privilege of affiliating the name of a business to a prestigious event is normally done so via sponsorship. The consequences of unauthorised association leads to consumer confusion, where an official sponsor is often deprived of the benefits that sponsorship agreements are designed to generate. Furthermore, the organisers also retain a duty to ensure that they protect the official sponsors, as a lack of protection can potentially lead to business organisations abstaining from providing sponsorship funding in the future. It has also transpired that sui generis legislation must be utilised for ambush marketing purposes, as intellectual property actions in the context of ambush marketing are often rendered futile. This is because successful actions often require factual evidence of infringement, which ambush marketers have become exceptionally astute at circumventing. For example, rarely will one see an ambush marketer utilise the five interlocked rings in any of their marketing campaigns. This paper will briefly outline the key advertising restrictions that have been introduced and will evaluate the legislature's 'gold-plating' element of the regulations - the introduction of a reversed presumption of guilt. (2)

2. Event Zones

   The event zones are now clearly identified utilising maps and coloured boundary lines (3). Such zones can be classified as the area within the immediate vicinity of the major Olympic venues. With regards to spectacles such as the marathon route, the regulations will apply to the various parks, roads...