Government Relations
Last Wednesday (24), Senator Eduardo Gomes (MDB-TO), reporter of the Senate Bill of Law (Projeto de Lei do Senado – PLS) n. 383, of 2017, which recognizes eSport as an official sport and also regulates its practice in Brazil, presented his report defending the approval of the PLS, with a substitutive text proposed by him, at the Committee of Education, Culture and Sport (CE) of the Senate.
The PLS was presented by Senator Roberto Rocha (PSDB-MA) in October 2017, and has been approved by the Committee of Science, Technology, Innovation, Communication and Informatics (CCT) of the Federal Senate in April 2018.
According to Senator Eduardo Gomes, the regulation of the issue in Brazil will grant legal certainty to athletes and associative entities. These entities can be created freely, but the association to them cannot be imposed.
The PLS defines eSport as the sport in which two or more individuals or teams compete in games developed through information and communication technology, and that may be practiced in professional modality.
The text defines professional athlete as the individual who dedicates himself/herself to the sport continuously and receiving compensation as his/her main source of income, and he/she must be at least 16 years old.
The text assures athletes the right to explore or to cede their image. Furthermore, the PLS also assures to game developers the copy right in case of championships organized by associative entities, following the Brazilian legislation of intellectual property.
The report of Senator Eduardo could be deliberated by the Committee in the following weeks.
Now, the PLS may receive a terminative decision from CE, which may free the Bill from deliberation on the Senate Floor if no appeal is presented against CE´s decision. The Bill will be submit to the review of the House of Representatives, under a similar legislative procedure, and may not need to be deliberated on the House Floor. If the House approves the same text that comes from the Senate, the Bill will be submitted to the sanction of the President of the Republic.