Event sponsorship — supporting a match, tournament or public event in exchange for brand visibility — is not a separate contract type in Georgia: it is built on the norms of the Law on Advertising governing sponsorship, outdoor advertising, transport advertising and municipal regulation. The sponsor's contribution counts as the value of advertising, and the event inventory falls under the placement rules for outdoor advertising. On this page we explain which rules form the frame of the deal.
The Legal Qualification of Sponsorship
Under the Law on Advertising, sponsorship is the contribution by natural and legal persons to the activity of other natural and legal persons — in the form of funds, property, results of intellectual activity, services or works — on the condition of distributing advertising for the goods produced by the sponsor. The sponsorship contribution is thus regarded as the value of the advertising, the sponsor as the advertising customer, and the sponsored party as the advertising distributor. Two practical consequences follow. First, the sponsor has no right to interfere in the activity of the advertisement's producer and distributor — the event organizer retains content control. Second, a person whose goods or activity may not be advertised under this law has no right to sponsor at all. The law also directly prohibits sponsorship — direct or indirect, including through other persons — by manufacturers, importers and sellers of tobacco products, accessories or devices for tobacco consumption: promoting a tobacco brand through event funding is unlawful whatever intermediary is used.