The scope of application of competition rules

In the case of Piau v Commission, the Court reiterated that competition rules could, on some occasions, apply to sport.

In that case, the Commission had rejected, on the ground of lack of Community interest, the applicant's complaint against a rule of the Fédération internationale de football (FIFA) governing the activities of players' agents. In its judgment in 2005, the Court found that football clubs and the national associations of which they are members are undertakings and associations of undertakings respectively within the meaning of Community competition law, so that FIFA itself, whose members are the national associations, constitutes an association of undertakings within the meaning of Article 81 EC, now Article 101 TFEU. Those preliminary considerations enabled the Court to hold that the rule governing the activities of players' agents constituted a decision of an association of undertakings. Those activities are intended regularly and for remuneration to bring a player and a club into contact with a view to conclusion of an employment contract or two clubs with a view to conclusion of a transfer agreement. It is, therefore, a commercial supply of services which is not specifically a sporting activity as defined in case-law.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-25