interview
Ask the Esports Lawyers AUTHOR Nixon Peabody LLP @NixonPeabodyLLP
Esports is an ever-changing landscape. With the industry growing at such an alarming rate, there’s always bound to be teething problems. Esports is still in the process of professionalising fully, and thus there’s still plenty of examples of business malpractice across the space.
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We spoke to Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan, a labour and employment associate and a complex commercial litigator
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at Nixon Peabody, and Benjamin Kim, a partner in Nixon Peabody’s Labor & Employment group who offered their thoughts and expertise on some of the most pertinent issues in esports at present. The Esports Journal: What are some of the most pressing legal issues right now in esports? Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan: One of the biggest issues will be (and to an extent already is) unionisation in esports.
Unionisation in sports generally has been a bit messy, but with esports, it becomes more complicated as there are different game publishers who own the game being played itself. Another issue is governance—in other words, how to govern this industry as there is no set structure outside of the prominent game publishers creating their own structure—as well as regulatory compliance—such as with the FTC, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in
