COMPETITION LAW POLICY AND SPORTS: INTERFACE AND CHALLENGES.

Abstract

Governing and organizing bodies of sports have faced several challenges under the Competition Law in past few decades. This paper has mainly fixated upon the implications of Competition Law on sporting bodies and subsequent aspects. Primarily, addressing the legal debate regarding application of Competition Law in sports sector, there is an implicit overlap between the economic gains and self-regulation. Hence, the federations cannot be granted absolute immunity against the jurisdiction of Competition Law. Secondly, dealing with the implications of Competition Law upon restrictive rules of sporting bodies and restrictions imposed on the players, it is pointed out that there is need for clear demarcation between the governance and any commercial function of sports association. Thirdly, legitimacy of selling of collective rights by the league has been scrutinized. Ergo, there is a need to bring a specific regulation governing the conduct and functioning of these sports associations to bring uniformity and remove arbitrary action. Also, the adjudication of pending litigation before judicial forums like Competition Commission of India and Supreme Court of India dealing with these issues will result in emergence of a settled legal approach in our country.