The Canadian Press (CP) reports the B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling for the Competition Bureau to investigate whether the purchase of all outdoor advertising space by the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee violates the ban on anti-competitive activities.
The association’s president Robert Holmes said, “the idea that a government-sponsored entity like (the organizing committee) would use its financial muscle and its obvious advantages that it’s got in terms of use of the Olympic name and marks and so on, to squelch anybody else being able to advertise to get their point of view across, whether commercial speech or political speech, it just didn’t sit right with us”.
According to International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules all bid cities are required to buy all the advertising on major thoroughfares leading to Olympic venues in order to protect lucrative sponsorship exclusivity contracts from marketing efforts by competitors, reports CP. In its 2010 bid Vancouver organizers had said they would be doing so and have since spent $40 million to buy the space.
But according to CP the way those sales are handled, organizers had to buy all of the advertising space available. Not just the locations they wanted. The organizers reportedly intend to sell what they can’t use themselves to sponsors and other Olympic partners and if there is still space left they may consider selling it to other parties.
Holmes said the concern isn’t just that other businesses not connected to the Olympics won’t be able to engage in legitimate advertising, but also that the advertising buy limits the right of people to protest over issues related to the Olympics.
