| As an economic activity, the starting point of professional sports is winning trophies and gainingcommercial interests.Professionalsportshave the followingcharacteristics: community dominated, cooperation and competition existingbetweenparticipants, obvious commercialization,and so on. With the economic globalization increasingly deepened, the development of professional sports also have the tendencies as follows: a large number of international financial capital injectinginto this field, the clubs turninginto the corporate system, taking legal measures to regulate professional sports,etc. Although the professional sports has gradually become a huge economic industry, there are many problems in it, such as, monopoly agreements, abusing of thedominantposition of market, the concentrationof the undertakings, administrative monopoly. That’s the reason why antitrust law gradually paid attention to it.Based on the purpose of economic efficiency, the United States antitrust law has great flexibility in the field of antitrust law application and exemptions.The U.S. professional baseball anti-monopoly disputes went to the Supreme Court of the United States. European professional sports are also regulated by anti-monopoly law and European Union is reluctant to apply the exception, but some behaviors can be exempted. EU competition law had an access to regulate sport industry until "Bosman case" in 1996 and then became one of the means to regulate sport industry. Because of Antitrust laws enacted later, there are many imperfectionsin legislation and law enforcement.Until "Liu xiaowu case", it’s the first time to use the Antitrust law to lodge a complaint and explain the case.Anti-monopoly law has done empirical research in the field of professional sports.Player transfer system has become one of the important contents of professional sports. For the benefits of the clubs, the clubs restrict the flow of athletes by agreements, which help to form horizontal agreements between the clubs. The "Brown case" and "Bosman case" were regarded as the athletes’ counterattack to monopoly agreements. On the sale of television rights, exclusive agreement and concentrating sale are often tied together. This way excludes other competitors and harms the interests of consumers,which involves in the abusing of the dominant position of market and the behaviors of monopoly agreements. The United States gave the four major leagues rights free of antitrust law concentrating on the sale of television rights through Congressional legislation. Through the Premier League case,Europe split broadcast rights and prohibited exclusive agreement at the same time. In order to ensure the fairness and authenticityof the competition and maintain the interests of the consumers, concentrationof undertakings between professional clubs are strictly prohibited. "ENIC case" and "Shide case" are the typical cases. On the migration issues in the club,European and American countries apply the rule of reason to analyze it. Such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission case and British Wimbledon migration case.Association of professional sports in China having the administrative power is the root of the problem. China’ anti-monopoly law regulates monopolistic behaviors, but it doesn’t put into good practice in the field of professional sports. It led to the first confrontation between China’s anti-monopoly law and monopolistic behaviors, namely "Liu xiaowu case". It regarded as the anti-unfair competition case, and then became the anti-monopoly lawsuit as objection. It is the first time to use the antitrust law to lodge a complain and explain the casein the field of professional sports.Based on the practical experience of the most successful professional club in our country, I put forward that the professional sports must adhere to the market oriented and gradually apply the anti-monopoly law. Then I raise the legal suggestions about how to promote the development of professional sports in China and other relevant system recommendations. |
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