Open AccessAll's Fair in Sport and Competition? The Application of EC Competition Rules to Sport
Author(s) -
An Vermeersch
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of contemporary european research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.299
H-Index - 15
ISSN - 1815-347X
DOI - 10.30950/jcer.v3i3.48
Subject(s) - competition (biology) , competition law , internationalization , political science , european union , european court of justice , economic justice , corporate governance , law , law and economics , business , european union law , public relations , sociology , economics , international trade , market economy , management , ecology , biology , monopoly
The commercialisation and internationalisation of sporting activities alongside ongoing European integration has put the relationship between the European Union and the sports world under strain. The Bosman case marked the start of an intense debate on an appropriate regulatory framework for this evolving relationship. Whereas the Community judges in previous sport related cases had consistently opted for settling the dispute on the basis of free movement provisions, the Piau and the Meca-Medina & Majcen cases entail the first rulings on the application of EC competition law to sport. This paper tackles the difficulty of separating the economic aspects from the sporting aspects of a sport and the consequences of anti-trust law for sporting associations. Whether the Court of Justice provided satisfactory guidelines to deal with upcoming legal actions and more generally, whether these guidelines on the application of competition law might influence the governance of sport in Europe, is also considered.