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European Super League: Playing monopoly against UEFA in the house of the CJEU

Waldenberger Svedin, Victor LU (2022) LAGF03 20222
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
The European Model of Sports is a concept adopted by EU’s institutions which relies on the European identities of solidarity, respect and equality. While it has gained increased recognition through various documents and soft law practices it was incorporated in primary law through Article 165 TFEU with the Lisbon Treaty. The governing bodies of sports have for long endured autonomous ruling and regulation without much interference from legislative powers. This autonomy and the European Model of Sports is now threatened in a case regarding competition law going up for trial in the CJEU: the European Super League vs UEFA.
While the referring questions criticize the prior authorization system adopted by UEFA and the sanctions against clubs... (More)
The European Model of Sports is a concept adopted by EU’s institutions which relies on the European identities of solidarity, respect and equality. While it has gained increased recognition through various documents and soft law practices it was incorporated in primary law through Article 165 TFEU with the Lisbon Treaty. The governing bodies of sports have for long endured autonomous ruling and regulation without much interference from legislative powers. This autonomy and the European Model of Sports is now threatened in a case regarding competition law going up for trial in the CJEU: the European Super League vs UEFA.
While the referring questions criticize the prior authorization system adopted by UEFA and the sanctions against clubs that this system impose, the CJEU are likely to assess this case in the light of previous case-law re-garding sports, where it becomes clear that sport should be treated special-ly. This thesis elaborates on the possibilities for legitimate objectives that would legitimize the potentially anti-competitive conduct under EU com-petition law, and specifically Article 101 and 102.
Although that the restrictive approach towards legitimate objectives being justified seems rather offsetting, this thesis argues that it is possible for UEFA to lawfully restrict competition through the legitimate objective of protecting the values set out in the European Model of Sports. Values that, institutions in close connection with the rise of the European Super League case, was being emphasized further by the EU’s institutions through a Res-olution. However, it should be noted that sport's governing bodies will re-main under scrutiny for future restrictions on competition. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Den europeiska idrottsmodellen är ett koncept som antagits av EU:s in-stitutioner och som bygger på de europeiska värdena solidaritet, respekt och jämlikhet. Den har fått ett ökat erkännande genom olika dokument och icke-bindande lagstiftning, men införlivades i primärrätten genom artikel 165 i fördraget om Europeiska unionens funktionssätt i och med Lissabon-fördraget. Idrottens styrande organ har länge haft autonomi beträffande reglering och styrning utan någon större inblandning från lagstiftande myn-digheter. Denna autonomi och den europeiska idrottsmodellen hotas nu i ett fall som rör konkurrenslagstiftning som nu ska prövas av EU-domstolen: European Super League mot UEFA.
I de hänskjutande frågorna kritiseras UEFA:s system för... (More)
Den europeiska idrottsmodellen är ett koncept som antagits av EU:s in-stitutioner och som bygger på de europeiska värdena solidaritet, respekt och jämlikhet. Den har fått ett ökat erkännande genom olika dokument och icke-bindande lagstiftning, men införlivades i primärrätten genom artikel 165 i fördraget om Europeiska unionens funktionssätt i och med Lissabon-fördraget. Idrottens styrande organ har länge haft autonomi beträffande reglering och styrning utan någon större inblandning från lagstiftande myn-digheter. Denna autonomi och den europeiska idrottsmodellen hotas nu i ett fall som rör konkurrenslagstiftning som nu ska prövas av EU-domstolen: European Super League mot UEFA.
I de hänskjutande frågorna kritiseras UEFA:s system för förhandstillstånd och de sanktioner mot klubbarna som detta system innebär, men det är tro-ligt att EU-domstolen kommer att bedöma detta fall mot bakgrund av tidi-gare rättspraxis om idrott, där det framgår tydligt att idrotten bör behandlas särskilt. I denna avhandling utvecklas möjligheterna att genom legitima mål kunna legitimera det potentiellt konkurrensbegränsande beteendet en-ligt EU:s konkurrenslagstiftning och artiklarna 101 och 102 TFEU.
Även om den restriktivitet till att motivera legitima mål tycks vara svårpas-serad, argumenterar denna avhandling för att det är möjligt för UEFA att lagligt begränsa konkurrensen genom det legitima målet att skydda de vär-den som anges i den europeiska idrottsmodellen. Värden som, i nära an-slutning till uppkomsten av fallet European Super League, betonades ytter-ligare av EU:s institutioner genom en resolution. Däremot ska det framhål-las att idrottens styrande organ fortsatt kommer vara under lupp för fram-tida konkurrensbegränsningar. (Less)
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author
Waldenberger Svedin, Victor LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20222
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
EU law, EU-rätt, Konkurrensrätt, Competition law, UEFA, Article 101 TFEU, Article 102 TFEU
language
English
id
9105178
date added to LUP
2023-02-03 16:42:07
date last changed
2023-02-03 16:42:07
@misc{9105178,
  abstract     = {{The European Model of Sports is a concept adopted by EU’s institutions which relies on the European identities of solidarity, respect and equality. While it has gained increased recognition through various documents and soft law practices it was incorporated in primary law through Article 165 TFEU with the Lisbon Treaty. The governing bodies of sports have for long endured autonomous ruling and regulation without much interference from legislative powers. This autonomy and the European Model of Sports is now threatened in a case regarding competition law going up for trial in the CJEU: the European Super League vs UEFA. 
While the referring questions criticize the prior authorization system adopted by UEFA and the sanctions against clubs that this system impose, the CJEU are likely to assess this case in the light of previous case-law re-garding sports, where it becomes clear that sport should be treated special-ly. This thesis elaborates on the possibilities for legitimate objectives that would legitimize the potentially anti-competitive conduct under EU com-petition law, and specifically Article 101 and 102. 
Although that the restrictive approach towards legitimate objectives being justified seems rather offsetting, this thesis argues that it is possible for UEFA to lawfully restrict competition through the legitimate objective of protecting the values set out in the European Model of Sports. Values that, institutions in close connection with the rise of the European Super League case, was being emphasized further by the EU’s institutions through a Res-olution. However, it should be noted that sport's governing bodies will re-main under scrutiny for future restrictions on competition.}},
  author       = {{Waldenberger Svedin, Victor}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{European Super League: Playing monopoly against UEFA in the house of the CJEU}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}