What Is Going on in Europe? Developments and Complexity in EU Sports Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/29429Keywords:
EU sports law, Court of Justice of the European Union, sports governing bodies, conditional autonomy, freedom of movement, antitrust law, Wouters proviso, good governanceAbstract
The Court of Justice of the European Union’s sports law jurisprudence is complex. This article argues that beneath this complexity lies a coherent framework of conditional autonomy. Sports governing bodies (SGBs) retain regulatory power when their rules serve legitimate objectives and satisfy proportionality requirements. The article traces this framework’s evolution from near-complete SGB autonomy (Walrave, Donà) to landmark decisions establishing conditional autonomy (Bosman, Meca-Medina) and, more recently, to increasingly critical decisions (Super League and ISU). By examining the Court of Justice of the European Union’s application of freedom of movement and competition law (including the sport-specific Wouters proviso), the article demonstrates that while conditions have grown more demanding, the fundamental framework remains consistent. The article also analyzes the Belgian Competition Authority’s 2025 decision on the Union Cycliste Internationale’s (hereinafter, UCI) technical gearing standards that illustrates how doctrinal complexity creates practical confusion for national authorities. This article provides practitioners, policymakers, and scholars with an accessible framework for navigating EU sports law, demonstrating that understanding conditional autonomy is essential to making sense of the body of case law.
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