Event organising: legal issues to consider
And how to use them to your advantage
Text by Jonathan Ramael
No one working in the MICE business will be baffled with amazement when I say a lot of
things can go wrong during an event. It can take just one person doing a half-assed job, and
your entire project could face major problems. If disaster strikes and you don’t know how to
react, it could cost you your reputation and a good deal of money. Knowing your legal
options in certain situations can be a complicated matter. That’s why I visited the event fair
Festivak in Antwerp, to attend a lecture by Mr. Pieter Londers of Lorenz International
Lawyers. He brightly shone his light on the matter using five practical examples – my sincere
apologies for slightly spicing them up.
Case study 1: Picture yourself organising a girls night. Nice, isn’t it? Surfing the web, you
come across a photograph of the distinguished group of gentlemen known as the
Chippendales. Since half-naked muscled torsos tend to work wonders luring the ladies, you
decide to save the image and use it on the poster promoting your event.
The issue here is simple: can everyone freely use images, brands and names for commercial
reasons? The answer is just as simple: no, you really, really can’t. In principle, original images
are automatically protected by law, and can’t be used without explicit permission of the
owner. If you don’t have this permission, the owner can ask for monetary compensation or a
discontinuation of the usage by rule of court.
The simple rule here is to always think of images as protected, and to always ask for a clear
permission to use them. People depicted on a photo also have to give their permission for
commercial use. Names are protected as well. For example: congratulating Tia Hellebaut on
her Olympic medal in a smart little commercial for the product you sell, is illegal if you didn’t
consult her first. Brand names are, logically, protected as well.
Case study 2: While you’re organising a major rock concert, the
lead singer suffers a serious case of sudden horrible death
(escaped circus lions, sad story). Obviously this will prevent him
from performing. Can the audience reclaim the ticket money?
What if he’s not dead but just very, very drunk?
© Nevit Dilmen
An artist dying right before a concert of course counts as force
majeure (‘overmacht’). Four legal conditions must be met for this
to be the case: the incident must be unforeseeable, independent
of the human will, inevitable and it must make it impossible for
the artist to fulfil his contract. Considering the fact he’s dead, all four conditions are very
well met. Legally, the singer’s heirs have no right to his concert fee, but the event organiser
will have to refund all tickets sold. The audience though, has no right to monetary
compensation except for the ticket money.
If the artist is still alive but unable to perform because he’s intoxicated, the situation is
completely different. Being drunk is clearly one’s own fault. As an organiser, you can sue him
for costs suffered, and ticket holders can claim back their money as well as ask for
compensation of transportation (and other) costs. All costs made can be recovered on the
artist, who will by then face a not so pleasant hangover.
Case study 3: You decide to grant a starting band a podium to make name for themselves.
Let’s say some kids you know just won a minor rock rally, you ask them to perform on your
event, and you want to give them a small sum for their troubles. What are your social
security obligations?
Many organisers are not aware they are considered the
employers of the artists they book, which would logically
make the latter his/her employees. This simple fact has a lot
of consequences. You have to pay the employer’s
contribution (‘patronale bijdrage’), take care of a declaration
of employment and fill in all necessary social documents. A
lot of paperwork indeed.
There are two exceptions to this rule. The first comes in
handy when working with amateur artists: young people
© laffy4k
playing for fame, not money. These people are paid by flat-rate reimbursements of
expenses. They can earn a maximum of 118,08 euro per day and a maximum of 2361 euro
annually. They can only perform for seven consecutive days and for 30 days every year. They
have to have an official artist card as well. If all these conditions are met, the artist is not
considered an employee. A much bigger (and often better earning) category, are of course
self employed artists. In both cases, no social security costs need to be paid by the organiser.
Case study 4: You’re selling event tickets via the internet, receiving the buyer’s email
addresses in the process. Can you use these to send practical information on the event?
Can you use them to promote other events? Can you simply give them to your sponsors for
direct marketing reasons?
Privacy and data protection have long been considered somewhat unimportant to the
Belgian justice system. We have a privacy commission though, and it takes complaints
seriously. As an organiser, you simply just can’t start bugging people with promotional
material. Although there are gradations. If, for example, the date of your event must be
changed (lions!), you can of course send an email to ticket holders to let them know about
what happened. You can even send them additional information about future events, under
some strict conditions. They have to be existing clients who gave their explicit permission to
do so (via a little checkbox in the first mail), it must be about a similar event, and you have to
give the clients a way to make the mails stop if they’re tired of them.
Addresses received in any other way cannot (really, not!) be used for promotional activities.
Having permission is crucial. The privacy commission investigates every complaint and can
even take you to court. Fines following misuse of personal data can be quite serious and
should not be taken lightly. On the other hand, no major trials were held in Belgium yet.
Most of the time, offenders negotiate with the commission to come to an agreement. Most
of the biggest, most abusive spammers are located abroad anyway.
Case study 5: It’s December and you’re organising a FED-cup tennis tournament. The
federation demands matches to be played in a temperature of 18-22 C°. A couple of hours
before the first game, your rented heating system stops working. The supplier doesn’t pick
up the phone. It’s now only 12 degrees inside, and Venus Williams refuses to take off her
winter jacket. The tournament is on the brink of being cancelled. What to do, what to do?
What happens when a supplier fails to fulfil his part
of the deal? The first step to take, obviously, is to
react immediately. Document the evidence of the
fault with pictures or video, or let someone else do it
for you. Secondly, send the supplier an official notion
of default (‘ingebrekestelling’). Be very clear on what
part of the contract wasn’t fulfilled, and give him/her
© Justin Smith
a strict deadline. Be clear about what you want as
well: financial compensation, a third party stepping in to finish the work or replacement of
the broken equipment. All communication is best done in an official, registered letter.
In cases like the above one, time is of the essence. You might have to contact one of the
supplier’s competitors to fix things in time, only to reclaim the costs from the original
supplier after the event. This can be done, but only in very urgent cases, after serious
breaches of contract. As an organiser, you’re obligated to contain the damage as much as
you can. You can’t wait three days before contacting and suing the construction firm when
your new roof is leaking. When a third party is contacted, an investigation by the law will
always follow. Three conditions have to be met for financial compensation to happen: the
fault, as well as the damage, must be proven, and there has to be a clear connection
between the two. We’re not in the States here, where you can become a millionaire by
winning a trial. Belgian courts are very hesitant in these cases. The burden of proof is always
on the organiser.
The lesson of this article is an easy one. If you’re not sure about which actions to take when
trouble rears its ugly head before, during or after an event, it’s always a good idea to ask for
legal advice before it’s too late.
Lorenz is an international
network of law firms with
offices in Brussels, Bishkek
and Geneva. Mr. Pieter
Londers is a lawyer in real
estate, construction and
commercial & consumer
protection law. www.lorenzlaw.com.