アメリカにおけるスポーツ代理人に対する競業禁止の契約的合意の強制可能性 : プロスポーツ選手の代理人選任の自由をめぐって

抄録

In the sports management business in the United States, unlike Japan, there have been glutted with sports agents who compete fiercely for athlete clients. However, while agent competition seems to remain intense, the changing economics of the player representation business might before long threaten an athlete's right to freely select any agent. With many of the top agents seemingly converting loyalties through all of the consolidation, the larger agencies in the industry have attempted to protect themselves by including non-compete clauses in their employment agreements with agents. If these restrictive covenants should be deemed enforceable against sports agents, it could have a enormous effect on the athlete agency industry and ultimately, mean the end of professional athlete's right to select their agents without restriction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changing business of sports agencies and the Steinberg and Dunn litigation and the impact on athlete's ability to select their agents on the use of non-compete agreements in the athlete-agent industry. Lastly, I conclude with a decision of the appeal in Steinberg and Dunn dispute and with an assessment of the impact enforceable non-compete agreements would likely have on sports agents and players in Japan.