Luxemburg, 18/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - After setting aside the judgment of the Court of First Instance because it erred in law, the European Court of Justice has judged that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) anti-doping rules, taken up by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), do not go beyond what is necessary to ensure sporting events take place and function properly. David Meca-Medina and Igor Majcen, two professional swimmers, lost the case which they brought against the European Commission for rejecting their complaint.
Having tested positive for the use of Nandrolone in 1999 during the World Cup in their discipline at Salvador de Bahia (Brazil), the two athletes were suspended for four years, a term subsequently reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They then filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging that the IOC rules on doping control were not compatible with Community competition rules.
The IOC's anti-doping rules are indeed a matter for competition law, says the Court. But it goes on, “It does not appear that the restrictions, which the threshold beyond which the presence of Nandrolone in an athlete's body indicates doping, go beyond what is necessary to ensure that sporting events take place and function properly. Since Mr Meca-Medina and Mr Majcen have, moreover, not pleaded that the penalties which were applicable and were imposed in the present case were excessive, it has not been established that the anti-doping rules at issue are disproportionate”.
Messrs Meca-Medina and Majcen were represented by two of the four lawyers who shone in the famous Bosman case, Maîtres Dupont and Lucas.