In its proceeding to assess under competition law the so-called 50+1 rule, the Bundeskartellamt has informed Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) and the third parties admitted to the proceeding of the current stage of and the next steps in the proceeding.

In its assessment under competition law of DFL’s proposals for amending its League Statutes (see press release of 13 July 2023), the Bundeskartellamt now also has to take into consideration the European Court of Justice’s most recent case law. The Court passed three judgments on 21 December 2023 clarifying the relation between sports association rules and competition law (case C-333/21 “European Superleague Company”; case C 124/21 “ISU”; case C-680/21 “Royal Antwerp”).

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “We will examine these judgments and discuss what effect they may have on our assessment and the next steps in the 50+1 proceeding.”

The proceeding will be continued by the Bundeskartellamt’s 6th Decision Division, which generally deals with sport and media. Until now the 11th Decision Division has been in charge of the proceeding. Due to necessary organisational restructuring, this Decision Division is now mainly responsible for abuse control relating to energy price relief measures. The 6th Decision Division, on the other hand, is also responsible for matters such as assessing DFL’s sale of the media rights to football matches (see, for example, press release of 30 January 2024). Having all proceedings relating to sports association rules handled by one Decision Division will help ensure a consistent implementation of the European Court of Justice’s judgments mentioned above.

The fact that the 50+1 proceeding will be continued by the 6th Decision Division also resolves the allegations of bias against the previous case handlers raised by HAM International Limited, a company admitted to the proceeding owned by Hassan Ismaik, an investor in TSV 1860 München. Allegations of bias were also made against a member of the 6th Decision Division who will continue to be involved in the proceeding. However, an extensive internal investigation has shown that these allegations were unfounded.