The Court of Justice of the European Union’s Advocate General argues in favour of a narrow interpretation of the sporting exception, according to which specific rules adopted solely on non-economic grounds and relating to sporting matters fall outside the scope of EU competition and internal market law, in opinions delivered on Thursday 15 May (cases C-209/23, C-428/23, C-133/24).
In all three cases, the Court is examining regulations adopted by national (German football association) or international (FIFA) sports associations in light of competition and internal market law.
On the basis of case-law, Nicholas Emiliou proposes that the Court rule that EU law authorises sports associations to adopt regulations relating to the activity of players’ agents who operate in a market upstream or downstream from those in which the association or its member clubs operate.
If they produce significant anticompetitive effects, these regulations may be justified if it is established that they pursue legitimate sporting objectives while meeting the proportionality and effectiveness criteria (the ‘Meca-Medina’ case law, case C-519/04 P - see EUROPE 9235/32).
The Advocate General examines the regulations in question in light of the rules on freedom of movement and specifies the conditions they must meet in order to be considered compliant with those rules.
See the Opinion of the Advocate General: https://aeur.eu/f/guj (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)