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Obligations of a sports agent
The sports agent must meet two types of obligations. On the one hand, the general obligations (link to part one of the text below) for businesses providing job placement and, on the other hand, the special obligations (link to part two of the text below) for sports agents (from 1 June 2019).
General obligations of an employment agency
- The agency must treat all persons concerned in an objective, respectful and non-discriminatory manner and may not draw up or publish job advertisements which may give rise to discrimination.
- The agency must respect the privacy of employees and may only request and use the personal data with the employee's consent and in the employee's interest for his or her professional employment and in compliance with the regulations governing the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data.
- The agency must grant the client and the employees access to the data stored about them and must provide, at their request, a copy of their file when the contract has ended.
- The agency may only request and use information about the commissioning employer and the employees for the job placement activities.
- The agency must provide the commissioning employer and the employees correct, timely and complete information on the job placement activities and on the nature of the employment.
- Personality tests and psychological tests may only be carried out by or under the supervision of a psychologist.
- The agency may not carry out job placement activities for vacancies that do not constitute a real job offer.
- The agency may not engage in any activity which leads to employment contrary to public order or which the agency can clearly identify as being in breach of social security or tax legislation.
- The agency may not engage in job placement activities in so far as these are connected with a strike, lock-out or suspension of an employment contract due to bad weather or lack of work for economic reasons.
- The agency may mediate for employees of a foreign nationality if the regulations on the employment of foreign workers are complied with.
- The agency may not take the place of the commissioning employer for decisions concerning the recruitment or dismissal or the negotiations in this regard.
- The agency must provide this text to all persons using private job placement services or display this text in full in spaces of the agency which are accessible to the public and where it can be read.
- Agencies whose activities include the publication of job offers via the written, audio or visual media (TV, newspapers, internet, radio, etc.) must either publish this text in full via the medium concerned or expressly state the location (e.g. internet address) where this text can be found. This text should be made available free of charge by the agency upon request.
Special obligations for sports agents
- Employment agencies of paid athletes may receive fees, commissions, contributions, admission or enrolment fees, hereinafter referred to as commissions, only if the following conditions are met:
- the commission is laid down in advance in a written agreement between the agency and the client. If the private job placement is offered together with other services, the commission for the different services shall be determined separately;
- the employee agrees explicitly and in advance to the commission;
- the parties are each given one original copy of this agreement.
- The commission for the job placement of the paid athlete is calculated on the foreseen total gross annual income of the paid athlete, and this for the total duration of the contract.
- The sports agent must register with the Flemish public administration before starting the job placement activities if he performs job placement activities in the Flemish Region.
- The sports agent must not have any fiscal or social debts.
- The sports agent will receive a registration number after registration and must mention it in all external communication regarding the job placement activities.
- The sports agent must refrain from misleading publicity.
- The sports agent must provide a surety of 25,000 euros with a financial institution or insurance company. If the sports agent owes a debt to the Flemish public administration, the latter can claim against the surety for the amount of the debt.
- The sports agent is prohibited from directly or indirectly approaching persons younger than 15 years of age with the intention of concluding a job placement agreement
- A sports agent is not allowed to receive compensation for carrying out job placement activities for a minor (under 18 years of age).
- The sports agent is not allowed to cooperate with non-registered sports agents when carrying out his job placement activities in the Flemish Region.
- It is not permitted to circumvent the obligation to register in any way whatsoever. Involving third parties to carry out the brokerage activities of an agency – a so-called franchise system – without this third party being registered as a sports agent is therefore not permitted. The franchisee cannot make use of the franchisor's recognition. Consequently, a third party can never take the place of a registered sports agent and carry out tasks which are an integral and indivisible part of the sports agent's core activities, without the required recognition.