Arent Fox Sports Practice counsel Maidie Oliveau was quoted in Corporate Counsel on the importance of morals clauses in endorsement agreements between companies and athletes.

The article reported that a week after the US Anti-Doping Agency published specific allegations that Armstrong was part of a doping ring, “his brand-backers started backing away from the seven-time Tour de France champ.” The response from those companies was possible because of morals clauses, “which can allow companies to terminate an agreement and/or recuperate payments they’ve made to a celebrity or athlete endorser—whether because that celebrity was convicted of a crime, the athlete violated the rules of his or her sport, or the endorser behaved in a way the sponsor found out of line with the brand.”

Ms. Oliveau told Corporate Counsel that while those companies can seek to use morals clauses, they should also expect pushback from the athlete endorsing their product. “It’s strictly a negotiation,” said Ms. Oliveau, adding that athlete’s agents will try to find any measure that could be interpreted as too subjective. “Agents are very, very attentive to morals clauses.”

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