Bonn, June 16, 2025 — Germany’s antitrust authority, the Bundeskartellamt, has called on the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) to improve how it applies the 50+1 rule, warning that inconsistencies in enforcement could undermine its legality under competition law.
While the watchdog expressed no fundamental objection to the 50+1 rule itself — which is designed to preserve club member control over football teams and limit external investor influence — it flagged serious concerns about how the rule has been applied in practice.
“The DFL must ensure equal conditions of competition and apply the rule in a non-discriminatory and consistent manner,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt.
The authority highlighted three key shortcomings:
- Fan Membership Access: Not all Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga clubs provide equal opportunities for fans to become voting members, weakening the rule’s intended promotion of club democracy.
- Inconsistent Voting Oversight: In a 2023 vote on investor involvement in media rights, the DFL failed to verify whether Hannover 96’s representative voted in line with its parent club’s instructions — a lapse that raised questions about the rule’s enforcement.
- Benefactor Exemptions: Longstanding exemptions for clubs like Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg are no longer justifiable under recent European Court of Justice rulings, which demand consistent and objective application of competition law exemptions.
The DFL had itself asked the Bundeskartellamt to assess the 50+1 rule in light of evolving EU case law, including the Super League, ISU, and Royal Antwerp judgments from late 2023. The agency found that while the rule’s public interest objective remains valid, it must be applied fairly across all clubs to maintain that legal protection.
The Bundeskartellamt has shared its preliminary findings and recommended improvements, but emphasized that final decisions rest with the DFL’s internal committees. The authority also indicated that a transition period may be appropriate given the commercial and sporting stakes.
This is not a formal case against the DFL, the Bundeskartellamt stressed, but a regulatory effort to provide legal certainty and prevent competitive imbalances in Germany’s top football leagues.
