IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/tuiedp/335047.html

Sports governing bodies vs. antitrust 0 - 4? Sport and competition economics comments on the recent judgements of the European Court of Justice

Author

Listed:
  • Budzinski, Oliver

Abstract

Commercial sports belong to the biggest entertainment industries in the world and, at the same time, are regularly raising antitrust concerns. This is partly due to the omnipresence of powerful market-internal regulators. These sport governing bodies set, implement, and enforce the rules and additionally engage in commercial activities. In a series of four judgments within less than a year, the European Court of Justice found (potential) antitrust violations in cases of deterring market entry, distorting competition, and exploiting players. This contribution adds economic comments to the predominantly legal literature on these judgements. It concludes that despite important steps in the right direction, more antitrust enforcement is necessary to protect competition in this unique entertainment industry vis-à-vis the presence of market-internal, private regulators. Next to limiting their scope (where the court provided progress), also the incentives for anticompetitive conduct must be addressed.

Suggested Citation

  • Budzinski, Oliver, 2025. "Sports governing bodies vs. antitrust 0 - 4? Sport and competition economics comments on the recent judgements of the European Court of Justice," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 205, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:335047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/335047/1/1949327981.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oliver Budzinski, 2011. "The Institutional Framework for Doing Sports Business: Principles of EU Competition Policy in Sports Markets," Working Papers 108/11, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics.
    2. Oliver Budzinski, 2024. "Financial Regulation as an Anticompetitive Institution," Springer Books, in: Markus Breuer & David Forrest (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook on the Economics of Manipulation in Sport, edition 0, chapter 0, pages 135-155, Springer.
    3. Oliver Budzinski & Anika Müller‐Kock, 2018. "Is The Revenue Allocation Scheme Of Formula One Motor Racing A Case For European Competition Policy?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(1), pages 215-233, January.
    4. Budzinski, Oliver, 2023. "(Sports) economics upside down? A comment on the Advocate General opinion in European Super League versus UEFA/FIFA," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 173, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    5. Oliver Budzinski & Stefan Szymanski, 2015. "Are Restrictions Of Competition By Sports Associations Horizontal Or Vertical In Nature?," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 409-429.
    6. Budzinski, Oliver, 2024. "Financial regulation in sport championships as an anticompetitive institution," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 187, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    7. Lei Kuang & Zeyu Zhao, 2025. "Antitrust restriction on football governance: the case of European Super League," European Competition Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 1-24, January.
    8. Peeters, Thomas, 2012. "Media revenue sharing as a coordination device in sports leagues," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 153-163.
    9. Hoey, Sam & Peeters, Thomas & Principe, Francesco, 2021. "The transfer system in European football: A pro-competitive no-poaching agreement?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Budzinski, Oliver & Gänßle, Sophia & Kunz-Kaltenhäuser, Philipp, 2019. "How does online streaming affect antitrust remedies to centralized marketing? The case of European football broadcasting rights," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 128, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    2. Budzinski, Oliver & Feddersen, Arne, 2022. "Should organizing premier-level European football be a monopoly? And who should run it? - An economists' perspective," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 166, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    3. Budzinski, Oliver & Feddersen, Arne & Kunz-Kaltenhäuser, Philipp, 2023. "Zwischen Wettbewerbsorganisation und Wettbewerbsverzerrungen - Regelsetzungen durch europäische Fußballverbände," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 174, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    4. Budzinski, Oliver, 2017. "Four cases in sports competition policy: Baseball, judo, football, and motor racing," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 109, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    5. Budzinski, Oliver, 2024. "Financial regulation in sport championships as an anticompetitive institution," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 187, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    6. Dejan Trifunović & Bojan Ristić, 2023. "The Impact Of The Horizontal Distribution Of Media Rights Revenues In Sports Leagues On Competitive Balance," Shaping Post-COVID World – Challenges for Economic Theory and Policy, in: Aleksandra Praščević & Miomir Jakšić & Mihail Arandarenko & Dejan Trifunović & Milutin Ješić (ed.),Shaping Post-COVID World – Challenges for Economic Theory and Policy, chapter 12, pages 263-285, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade.
    7. repec:beo:swcetp:23-12 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Budzinski, Oliver, 2017. "Market-internal financial regulation in sports as an anticompetitive institution," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 110, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    9. Oliver Budzinski & Anika Müller‐Kock, 2018. "Is The Revenue Allocation Scheme Of Formula One Motor Racing A Case For European Competition Policy?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(1), pages 215-233, January.
    10. Budzinski, Oliver & Müller-Kock, Anika, 2016. "Market power and media revenue allocation in professonal sports: The case of formula one," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 102, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    11. Budzinski, Oliver, 2023. "(Sports) economics upside down? A comment on the Advocate General opinion in European Super League versus UEFA/FIFA," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 173, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    12. Hoey, Sam & Peeters, Thomas & Principe, Francesco, 2021. "The transfer system in European football: A pro-competitive no-poaching agreement?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Tomislav Globan & Ed Jägers, 2019. "Multiple Ownership, Collusion And Unusual Result Patterns In Soccer," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 245-260, April.
    14. Budzinski, Oliver & Kunz-Kaltenhäuser, Philipp, 2020. "Promoting or restricting competition? - The 50plus1-rule in German football," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 141, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    15. Budzinski, Oliver, 2014. "The competition economics of financial fair play," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 85, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    16. Budzinski, Oliver & Gänßle, Sophia & Lindstädt-Dreusicke, Nadine, 2021. "Wettbewerb und Antitrust in Unterhaltungsmärkten," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 147, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    17. Budzinski, Oliver & Pawlowski, Tim, 2014. "The behavioural economics of competitive balance: Implications for league policy and championship management," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 89, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    18. Rocaboy Yvon, 2023. "Inter-league Competition and the Optimal Broadcasting Revenue-Sharing Rule," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(2), pages 723-756, June.
    19. Oliver Budzinski & Arne Feddersen, 2020. "Measuring competitive balance in Formula One racing," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Kesenne & Brad R. Humphreys (ed.), Outcome Uncertainty in Sporting Events, chapter 1, pages 5-26, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Gustavo Berganti~nos & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2026. "The economics of sportscast revenue sharing," Papers 2601.02039, arXiv.org.
    21. D'ora Gr'eta Petr'oczy & L'aszl'o Csat'o, 2019. "Revenue allocation in Formula One: a pairwise comparison approach," Papers 1909.12931, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • Z20 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:335047. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ivtuide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.