Commercial companies created by professional sports leagues: a second decree issued pursuant to the law of March 2, 2022

Commercial companies created by professional sports leagues: a second decree issued pursuant to the law of March 2, 2022

Article 51 of the law aimed at democratizing sport in France of March 2, 2022 amending article L. 333-1 of the Sports Code, now authorizes, under certain conditions, professional sports leagues to create a commercial company for the marketing and management of the rights to use the sports events or competitions they organise.

The new decree n° 2022-747 of April 28, 2022 of April 28, 2022 published in the Official Journal of April 29 aims to determine the categories of natural and legal persons, under French or foreign law, not able to hold equity, or voting rights within this commercial company.

Under the terms of the new article R. 333-3-1 of the Sports Code, the following persons and entities may not hold capital or voting rights in the commercial company:

• sports associations and societies in the discipline concerned;
• natural and legal persons who control, within the meaning of Article L.233-3 of the Commercial Code, exclusively or jointly, a sports company or who are likely to exercise significant influence over it within the meaning of Article L. 233-17-2 of the Commercial Code;
  managers and employees of sports associations and sports companies in the discipline concerned;
• professional athletes, professional coaches and sports directors of the sports discipline concerned;
• persons exercising or having a mandate to exercise the activity of sports agent as defined in article L. 222-7 of the Sports Code;
• professional organizations of athletes, referees, coaches, associations and sports companies as well as their managers and employees;
• sports betting operators holding the authorization provided for in article 21 of law no. 2010-476 of 12 May 2010 relating to the opening up to competition and regulation of the gambling sector online or exclusive rights to organize and operate sports betting games provided for in Article 137 of Law No. 2019-486 of May 22, 2019 on business growth and transformation;
• the natural and legal persons who are the beneficiaries of the exploitation rights marketed and managed by the commercial company, as well as the natural or legal persons who control them exclusively or jointly within the meaning of Article L233-3 of the Commercial Code or who are likely to exercise significant influence over them within the meaning of Article L.233-17-2 of the Commercial Code;
• natural and legal persons established in a State or territory considered as non-cooperative within the meaning of article 238-0 A of the General Tax Code;
  legal persons controlled exclusively or jointly within the meaning of Article L. 233-3 of the Commercial Code by a natural or legal person established in a State or territory considered as non-cooperative pursuant to Article 238-0 A of the General Tax Code, or who exercise significant influence over these legal entities, within the meaning of Article L. 233-17-2 of the Commercial Code.