Brussels, 14 August 2025 — The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) has rejected a request for interim measures against the Royal Belgian Ice Hockey Federation (RBIHF) after the federation abruptly withdrew from all inline hockey activities, effectively rendering the dispute moot.
The case was triggered by a complaint lodged on 20 June by eight Belgian players and the Deutscher Inline Hockey Verband (DIHV), the organiser of the German inline hockey league (DIHL). The complainants argued that the RBIHF’s regulations and sanctions against players who took part in the DIHL infringed EU and Belgian competition rules governing sports federations. They sought an injunction prohibiting the federation from imposing sanctions and requested that their team, the Panthers, be allowed to compete freely in Germany.
On 1 July, however, the RBIHF announced it would cease all inline hockey activities and focus exclusively on ice hockey. It also committed to lifting existing sanctions and to publicly clarifying that players were free to participate in the DIHL.
Against that backdrop, the BCA’s Competition College concluded that there was no longer a sufficiently “serious, imminent and irreparable” risk that would justify interim measures. As a result, the authority declined to assess whether the RBIHF’s conduct constituted a prima facie competition law infringement.
The BCA stressed that its decision does not prejudge the outcome of the ongoing investigation on the merits. The underlying question — whether a sports federation’s disciplinary rules and sanctions can amount to unlawful restrictions of competition — remains open.
The case echoes broader debates in EU competition law about the autonomy of sports federations and the limits imposed by Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. Recent rulings by the Court of Justice of the EU — most notably in the European Super League and International Skating Union cases — have underscored that sporting bodies cannot use their regulatory powers to unjustifiably restrict athletes’ or clubs’ access to competing events.
The BCA is an active member of the European Competition Network and often cooperates with the European Commission and other national authorities in cases at the intersection of sport and competition law.
