U.S. Enacts Anti-Doping Law

A law signed by President Donald Trump in December extends U.S. law-enforcement jurisdiction over international sports doping fraud conspiracies, providing for criminal charges and requiring the sharing of information with the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

The law gives prosecutors the ability to seek fines of as much as $1 million and prison sentences of as long as 10 years for doping conspirators at events involving U.S. athletes, broadcasters and sponsors.

Individual athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs would not be subject to criminal prosecution under the law.

Bill Cumbow, AMA director of international competition, said the law likely will apply to all of the professional disciplines in the United States, if they have three or more international participants, even if the event is not on the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme international calendar.

The law also could include events outside the United States in which there are American participants, if the event is classified as a “Major International Sports Competition.”

Cumbow said the law includes competition that is “a single event or a competition that is a series of events held at different times, which, when combined, qualify an athlete or team for an award or other recognition.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency opposed the U.S. law, questioning America’s right to enforce laws outside its borders and fearing that “unintended consequences … will disrupt the global legal anti-doping framework recognized to date by 190 nations.”

“No nation has ever before asserted criminal jurisdiction over doping offenses that occurred outside its national borders—and for good reason,” WADA wrote in a statement at the time the bill passed the U.S. Senate. “It is likely to lead to overlapping laws in different jurisdictions that will compromise having a single set of anti-doping rules for all sports and all Anti-Doping Organizations under the World Anti-Doping Code. This will have negative consequences as harmonization of the rules is at the very core of the global anti-doping system.

“This act may lead to other nations adopting similar legislation, thereby subjecting U.S. citizens and sport bodies to similar extraterritorial jurisdictions and criminal sanctions, many of which may be political in nature or imposed to discriminate against specific nationalities,” the statement continued. “This will be detrimental to anti-doping efforts everywhere, including in the U.S.”

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who introduced the bill, did not respond to a request for comment.