Luxembourg, 26/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - The EU Court of First Instance had made it known that it decided on Wednesday in the “Piau Case” that the FIFA regulations on the occupation of football players' agents are not contrary to Community competition law. The European Commission, it said, did not commit a manifest error of assessment by rejecting a complaint from Laurent Piau, who contested the FIFA regulations of 1994, it says in a communication.
The Court decided that the Commission was within its powers in finding that the changes made by FIFA to its original regulations eliminated their principal anti-competitive features. It found that the Commission had not made an error in finding that: - the access examination for agents provides sufficient guarantees of objectivity and transparency; - the obligation to take out professional insurance does not constitute a disproportionate requirement; - the remuneration of players' agents, calculated on the basis of the player's net basic salary, does not constitute the fixing of imposed prices within the meaning of competition law. Similarly, the Court found that, on the subject of the requirement for a licence, the Commission was within its rights to decide that the restrictions as a result of the obligatory nature of the licence “could enjoy” an exemption from competition rules. In fact, FIFA's desire to demand a licence is justified by the need to introduce professionalism and morality to the occupation of players' agent in order to protect players whose careers are short, said the Court. It concluded that FIFA does hold a dominant position in the market of services of players' agents - which was concluded by the Commission - but that it does not abuse it. This does not therefore constitute an abuse of a dominant position, as contended by Laurent Piau.