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Courting Controversy: Competition Law Challenges to Sports Governance

12 December 2023, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

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A Centre for Law, Economics & Society lunchtime talk

Event Information

Open to

All

Organiser

UCL Laws Events

Location

Moot Court, UCL Faculty of Laws
Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens
London
WC1H 0EG

Speaker: Massimiliano Trovato, UCL
Chair: Deni Mantzari, UCL

About this talk

The so-called European model of sport grants sports governing bodies (SGBs) a high degree of autonomy to regulate their respective disciplines. Because of this, a growing tension has emerged between the SGBs' exercise of regulatory powers and the demands of EU competition law, as highlighted by several recent cases. In a short few weeks, the Court of Justice of the European Union is set to rule on three of them: ISU, Royal Antwerp, and the highly controversial European Super League case. These decisions will shed more light on some of the key questions surrounding sports governance:

  • Do regulations ostensibly devised to protect sporting integrity disproportionately restrict competition?
  • Can values like competitive balance and financial solidarity justify monopolistic structures?
  • How to prevent the SGBs’ commercial interests from tainting their regulatory functions?
  • And is the European model still suited to the evolving reality of the sports industry?

The seminar will tackle these issues by examining the existing case law, culminating in cases like Meca-Medina and MOTOE, as well as some of the underlying economic arguments. The goal is to determine whether sport is actually special, as claimed by those who argue in favour of an extensive notion of sporting autonomy, and to what extent restrictions on competition can be justified by invoking legitimate sporting interests. The upcoming CJEU decisions might indeed provide some badly needed clarity, but they will hardly say the final word on the matter.

This event is in-person only

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