AS: The European Super League wins the case against UEFA for abusing its dominant position and may demand hundreds of millions of euros in compensation

According to AS reported, the Madrid High Court ruled in favor of the UEFA Super League in the lawsuit against UEFA for abusing its dominant position in European football competitions.

This new judgment, issued by a tribunal of three judges, is enforceable and confirms a previous order issued by the President of the 17th Commercial Court of Madrid. The order requires UEFA, led by Ceferin, to cease its anti-competitive conduct as the court found that it imposed unreasonable and disproportionate restrictions in breach of Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The new ruling opens the door in the dispute to a possible multi-hundred-million-euro damages lawsuit by the European Super League against UEFA in the coming weeks, subject to a statutory settlement process before affected parties can make financial claims.

The new ruling comes after meetings between the UEFA Champions League and UEFA - six of which have been held in the past eight months - in an attempt to reach consensus. However, these negotiations did not bear fruit as UEFA rejected the changes proposed by the European Super League, including free broadcast of football matches through the "Unify" platform, improving the competitive level of the first stage of the competition, and strengthening the participation of clubs and players in competition governance and international schedules. At times it seemed as if both sides were getting close to a point of consensus, but ultimately it still eluded them.

The judgment of the Madrid High Court was made just before UEFA started the auction of TV broadcast rights for the UEFA Champions League in the 2027-2030 season one year ahead of schedule. This move may be used as a strategy to deal with the accumulation of adverse judicial judgments.

Bidding will open on October 6th and close on November 18th. The Commercial Court has previously ordered FIFA and UEFA to cease sanctioned anti-competitive conduct, bar them from repeating it in the future, and order them to immediately eliminate all effects of anti-competitive conduct arising during (or before) this process. The procedure was launched on April 18, 2021, when the European Super League announced the launch of a new professional football competition project and exercised actions in the field of competition law in response to the counterattack of the above-mentioned institutions.

In 2021, UEFA took tough measures to suppress ESL, but these actions were later found to violate EU competition law by the European Court of Justice, the highest court of the European Union. With this ruling, A22 resumed its proceedings in Spanish courts.

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