Most sport cases have been handled under EU antitrust rules, which prohibit anti-competitive agreements and practices as well as abuse of a dominant position. These cases have concerned revenue-generating activities connected with sport, such as media rights and ticket sales and the regulatory/organisational aspects of sport.
Economic activities related to sport fall within the scope of EU law, including competition law:
The Commission set forth the main principles of the joint sale of media rights in the UEFA Champions League, the FA Premier League and Bundesliga decisions.
The Commission accepted the joint selling of sport media rights by football associations on behalf of football clubs (as opposed to the sale of these rights by the individual clubs themselves), provided certain conditions were fulfilled. These include, inter alia, the sale of sport media rights through open and transparent tender procedures, a limitation of the rights’ duration (usually not exceeding three years) and the breaking down of the rights into different packages to allow several competitors to acquire rights.
With respect to the joint acquisition of sport media rights, reference is made to the Eurovision I and Eurovision II judgments.
Cases concerning ticket sales arrangements have concerned exclusivity arrangements between the organisers and the sponsors of sports events whereby consumers could pay for tickets only by using the sponsor’s credit card (credit card exclusivity).
Regarding regulatory/organisational issues: The Court of Justice confirmed in the Meca-Medina case that the compatibility of sporting rules with EU competition law should be examined on a case-by-case basis. The Court of Justice provided further clarification concerning the application of EU competition law to sporting rules in the MOTOE case. In this judgment, the Court confirmed that the commercial exploitation of sporting events is covered by EU competition rules. In October 2015, following a complaint by two professional speed skaters, the European Commission opened a formal investigation into the eligibility rules of the International Skating Union. In its final decision, issued in December 2017, the Commission found that those speed skaters participating in competitions that were not approved by the ISU faced severe penalties, including lifetime bans from all major international events. By imposing such restrictions, the Commission found that the ISU rules restricted competition and enabled the ISU to pursue its own commercial interests to the detriment of athletes and organisers of competing events. No fines were imposed upon the ISU, however the Commission’s decision required the ISU ended the infringement within 90 days of the date of notification and to communicate all the measures taken for that purpose. On 16 December 2020, the General Court confirmed that the ISU Eligibility rules were contrary to EU competition law.