The Taiwan Professional Basketball Players’ Association last week filed a lawsuit against the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), saying that the sport’s governing body did not pay appearance fees and infringed on players’ image rights for commercial use.
The players’ union said in a statement that the suit, filed on Monday last week, demands that the CTBA pay NT$30,000 per player for infringing their image rights by selling posters featuring star players without consent.
It also said that the CTBA had reneged on a promise to pay appearance fees, including NT$5,000 per game for participating in the annual CTBA-organized William Jones Cup.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
It said that players did not receive the fee in 2018, 2019 and 2023.
Responding to the suit, CTBA deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung (張承中) yesterday said that the body held several meetings with the players’ union, but both sides could not agree on per-game appearance fees, adding that the NT$5,000 figure was only settled and paid out for last year’s tournament.
Several issues stood in the way of negotiations on fees for games prior to last year, primarily how to calculate payments for each player, and whether awards and prize money should be deducted from the fees, Chang said.
The CTBA had proposed that if the competition did not turn a profit, it would not disburse the appearance fee, he said.
Regarding the posters, he said the CTBA was not directly in charge of their sale, which was done without its consent, adding that it was wrong not to get players’ consent for them.
“We have to take some blame for that happening. We asked the merchandise company to take them off shelves after finding out,” he said.
The company later issued a public apology and donated the revenue, which it reported at just more than NT$4,000, to a charity, he said.
However, the players’ union did not agree to that outcome, Chang said.
The newly launched Ministry of Sports in a statement released on Friday said it was aware of the lawsuit, and “in principle, we respect the decision by the players’ union, and have requested that CTBA resolve the issues within one month,” by settling in a way that upholds players’ rights.
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