Last week, the Senate approved the Games Legal Framework to regulate the activity of companies that develop electronic games. According to the project, games can be protected through patents. Now, the matter returns to the Chamber of Deputies, as the senators changed the content of the project.
The proposal allows companies to raise funds through the Rouanet Law and the Audiovisual Law, created to encourage culture in the country.
For Marcelo Mattoso, partner at Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados (BTLAW), this financing proposal under the Rouanet Law is just a formalization of what was already happening.
"Since the beginning of the 2000s, games have been recognized in Brazil as a means of cultural production, either by the Ministry of Culture or by the community itself. The audiovisual market supports this idea, since the markets connect and this is beneficial for both. The Brazilian cultural entertainment ecosystem only stands to gain," he says.
Foreign companies will be able to deduct 70% of the tax on remittances abroad related to the exploitation of games or licensing - as long as the companies invest in national electronic games.
The government must also provide tools for the development of the sector. The latest version of the report removed benefits such as the possibility of deducting up to 80% of investments made on the basis of calculation of Income Tax and Social Contribution on Net Profit. Furthermore, so-called fantasy games have remained outside of regulation for now. For Mattoso, the text goes in the right direction.
"I thought it was a positive point that fantasy games, slot machines, games of chance and lottery were out of the text. It was a huge fight within the sector not to mix these markets," he argued. There are two distinct universes that were being discussed in the same project , one of them being the electronic games sector (games or videogames for consoles, PC or mobile) and the fantasy games sector.
“Both are part of the entertainment industry and both are based on 'games' to generate entertainment content, but they do not correlate with each other, they have distant target audiences and completely different monetization models. The initial text of the legal framework for games ended up mixing the two universes and not fully encompassing either of them," he explains.
Marcelo Mattoso
Partner at Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados (BTLAW) and specialist in the games and eSports market. Advanced Masters (LL.M.) in Law – Innovation and Technology – at Fundação Getúlio Vargas School of Law (FGV/RJ).
