In its judgement of 9 July 2026 in 𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐎𝐍 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬, the Court of Justice clarified when rules with actual or potential restrictive effects on competition may nevertheless be compatible with Article 101 TFEU if they pursue a legitimate public interest objective and are necessary and proportionate. This is the exception developed in 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 and, specifically for sport, 𝐌𝐞𝐜𝐚 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞?

The Court confirmed that this exception may also apply to rules restricting undertakings which are not members of the relevant association, where those non-member undertakings nonetheless form part of the association’s ecosystem. In this case, the rules at issue were adopted by the German football federation and governed the use by players and clubs of players’ agents’ services. More specifically, those rules imposed the registration of agents, required agents to submit to certain FIFA, DFB and DFL rules and dispute resolution mechanisms, imposed additional registration requirements for legal persons, restricted certain forms of remuneration and imposed disclosure obligations in respect of payments made to agents.

💬 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬? Feel free to reach out to our competition team or your usual contact person at 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭.