Agonismo sportivo, attività economica e diritto dell’Unione Europea (Competitiveness, economic activity and EU Law)

In the national legal context, the qualification of a sports activity as competitive requires careful consideration and solid conceptual exercise, due to the inherently fluid and polysemous nature of the term. Conversely, from the perspective of European Union law, the notion of competitiveness is largely irrelevant. Under Union law, what matters is solely the qualification of the sports activity as an economic activity, or at least as a cross-border activity, regardless of the categories used at the national level (professional, amateur, elite, etc.). That said, if the qualification of a particular activity as competitive aims or results in reserving the exercise of certain activities to sports federations, thereby excluding third parties from market access, such restrictions could conflict with the rules of the Union’s internal market. The regulatory autonomy granted to sports federations must, in fact, be exercised within a framework of procedural and substantive rules that are clear, objective, transparent, non-discriminatory, and established ex ante, in order to prevent abuses of dominant position and ensure adequate levels of accountability and control in their decisions.