“The NCAA is not above the law”. This statement of US Supreme Court (USC) Justice Kavanaugh, expressing a self-evident fact, makes it obvious that the sporting federations have had difficulties in the past realizing that competition law applies to their rules and regulations. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Meca-Medina unveiled the general applicability of competition law to sports regulations and offered the Wouters criteria in case that specific sporting provisions pursue specific goals, which are not in themselves contrary to Art. 101 TFEU, in a proportionate, non-discriminatory manner. The ISU case is a gamechanger, where the Commission has chosen to render a prohibition decision instead of just accepting commitments. With the prohibition decision in ISU, the Commission has shown a deep understanding of the basic problems clubs and athletes have to experience every day when dealing with federations. With the GC judgment the legal certainty which can be derived from this decision is once more enlarged. In this Foreword, I have highlighted the major decisions in sports and competition law, not dealing with cases which take place in the sports branch but which are not sports-specific, such as decisions dealing with distribution agreements, and also leaving aside procedures which have not yet been closed by decision or just fact-based interim assessments.
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