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Follow us on GoogleEleven Danish cyclists, including Mads Pedersen and Niklas Larsen, have filed a lawsuit against HBO Nordic. Together with several other athletes from the Scandinavian country, they believe the streaming giant wrongfully used footage of them to promote the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
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Handful of athletes join forces against the streaming company
In addition to Pedersen and Larsen, who extended his contract with Tietema’s team last week, Mikkel Bjerg (UAE), Amalie Dideriksen (Cofidis), and mountain biker Sebastian Fini have filed a lawsuit against HBO Nordic. Handball players Mathias Gidsel, Mikkel Hansen, and Niklas Landin are also demanding compensation, as are badminton players Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen.
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Pedersen spoke in court via a video link, according to Ekstra Bladet. “I understand very well that HBO and TV2 are promoting cycling. But here, they’re promoting a subscription,” said the former world champion.
"I am absolutely convinced that it was intended to sell a product. However, there are other companies that pay large sums of money for that as well," he said.
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Mads Pedersen at the World Championships in Canada.
Pedersen and Co. are demanding 2 million Danish kroner
In total, the Danish athletes are reportedly demanding 2 million Danish kroner from HBO Nordic, which amounts to the equivalent of 267,500 euros, or 299,12 US dollars. For each instance in which HBO Nordic used an image of one of the athletes—which they believe was unauthorised—they are demanding 50,000 Danish kroner.
Pedersen is demanding a total of 150,000 kroner, while Larsen, Bjerg, Fini, and Dideriksen are each seeking 50,000 kroner from HBO Nordic.
The streaming service maintains the athletes gave their consent for the use of the footage in connection with the Olympic Games, for which it also held the television rights and was an official partner.
In addition, they claim that the images were used for editorial purposes, not for commercial gain. The case will be resolved this week.
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Clarice WebsterEditor
Clarice has been following cycling her whole life, wroting about Thibaut Pinot (among others) for her university magazine while earning her masters in Journalism. She is passionate about furthering equality in sports coverage, and has taken huge inspiration from pillars of women’s cycling like Beryl Burton, Marianne Vos, and Laura Kenny.
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