Esports regulation in France is moving forward. Today, as the country’s Senators start to discuss the “Numeric Law,” the French government plans to reveal a national Esports Federation tomorrow, at the French Ministry of Economy.

This organization, named “Fédération France-Esport” or “association France-Esport,” will have the mission to enable the legal framework of competitions, create a legal status for the competitors, address the subject of television broadcasts, and to develop international events. Its members will include tournament organizers, broadcasters, players, and representatives of the video game publishers—though they haven’t specified yet exactly who. Further information should be disclosed during the press conference.

The Numeric Law gets amended

Yesterday, an amendment was added to Article 42 of the Numeric Law. This amendment mainly aims at adding special fixed-term contracts for professional esports athletes. It includes a number of important elements:

1) The amendment defines a professional esports gamer as “anyone with gainful employment for the performance of competitive video gaming activity in a legal relationship of subordination with an association or a company which is authorized by the Minister ‘chargé du numérique,’ specified by regulation.” This definition confirms that esports teams will need official authorization when creating esports contracts for players. The authorization could be from the upcoming federation, but that has yet to be confirmed.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Esports teams will need official authorization when creating esports contracts for players.[/perfectpullquote]

2) The Labor Code would become applicable to professional competitive gaming employees, with the exception of a few articles. Effectively, fixed-length contracts would become the norm.

3) Any association or company having a paid relationship with an esports player must use fixed-length contracts.

4) Those contracts will be of a minimum of 12 months, based on a “competitive season of 12 months.” A ruling authority will determine the beginning and end of the competitive seasons. However, a contract signed after the beginning of a competitive season could last less, as long as it goes until the end of the season, or if it concerns the replacement of another player. The maximum length of such contracts will be of 5 years, with renewal options.

5) The contract will have to be in three copies, with each containing the aforementioned points (1 to 8). It will have to include the identity and address of both parties, the date of recruitment and its duration, the designation of a player’s requested activities, the amount of the compensation(bonus included), name and address of the employee’s designated healthcare provider, and the title of applicable collective bargaining agreements. The contract must be sent to the player within two days of recruitment.

6) Outright unilateral termination clauses (terminating a contract without agreement on both sides, for example, if a player doesn’t qualify for a tournament) won’t be possible.

7) Establishes penalties for not following these rules, ranging from creating a permanent contract to fees and possible jail time.

8) Any organization employing an esports player will have to guarantee equivalent conditions of preparation and training to those of other employed players during the contract period.

Work in progress

The creation of an esports federation, combined with the amendment (be it voted and passed as such), crosses more boxes off the list of 11 propositions found in the recent report on esports, written by Member of Parliament Rudy Salles and Senator Jérôme Durain.

Other elements in the propositions include differentiating gambling and esports, parental notification, and provisions concerning the Labor Laws and minor earnings, effectively protecting the earnings of minors under 16. Fixed term contracts have been included in yesterday’s amendment.

But there are still a few points to be settled. Among these is the donation taxation rules, reduced VAT for spectators’ tickets, cash prize legality and taxation, and a visa policy for esports professionals. But those propositions don’t necessarily need to be added in a law to be set in place. Therefore, it might be the work of the recently announced federation to have them enacted.

The French government does seem to be pushing the esports scene towards regulation and professionalization. But it also sets esports as different from sports in establishing a brand new federation. Reconciliation between the instances of sports and esports is not to be expected anytime soon, as well as all the advantages an assimilation with sports would mean.

The overall effect is that, while there is a lot of effort going into developing esports within France, there will be very little benefits for esports organizations, and numerous roadblocks.