EU Competition Law after the Grand Chamber’s December 2023 Sports Trilogy: European Superleague, International Skating Union and Royal Antwerp FC

Abstract

This paper provides a guided tour of the three judgments of the Court. After a summary of the facts leading to the disputes, the paper examines how the Court applies competition law to the rules of sporting bodies. The claim is that these three judgments contain a number of innovations in the application of general competition law, some of which are not convincing and some do little to resolve some of the fundamental problems that are found in the application of EU competition law. These new twists to EU competition law are much more significant than the rather obvious application of competition law to the rules of sporting associations.

Keywords: EU competition law, sports governance, abuse of a dominant position, restrictions by object, competition lae exemptions

JEL Classification: K21, L44, L83