Subscribe to us on Apple podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRadio and Pandora too. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend!
Brands and event organizers have yet to rush to court to settle disputes over sponsorship agreements upended by the coronavirus pandemic, choosing to talk it out instead, according to one of the nation’s top ad lawyers.
“We have not seen any litigation yet arising from these agreements, but we’ve seen a lot of negotiation,” Linda Goldstein, a partner at BakerHostetler, says on the latest edition of Ad Age’s “Ad Lib” podcast, while touching on a range of legal issues affecting the marketing industry.
The pandemic has forced the cancellation or suspension or just about every major music or sporting event across the globe since cases began spiking in March. While some events are resuming or have plans to resume–such as pro soccer, basketball and baseball games—most are taking place with significant alterations, like no fans in attendance. This has put pressure on sponsors to renegotiate deals in hopes of wringing some concessions to reflect the fact that the properties—which refers to the teams, leagues or event owners selling the sponsorships—haven’t been able to deliver the full value of deals that brands anticipated pre-COVID.