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BCA IMPOSES PENALTY PAYMENTS ON THE FEI, GLOBAL CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AND TOPS TRADING BELGIUM
Press release from Belgian Competition Authority (16 April 2018):
The Competition College of the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) has in a press release announced that it on April 13th 2018 imposed penalty payments on the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), the SPRL Global Champions League and the SPRL Tops Trading Belgium (hereafter GCT/GCL) for lack of implementation of the provisional measures imposed by the College in its decision of December 20th 2017. The measures concerned the invitation rules for groups of riders who must be invited to jumping events organised by the Global Champions Tour (the GCT invitation rules).**
The BCA can impose penalty payments when provisional measures have not been implemented, of up to 5% of the average daily turnover in Belgium of the undertakings concerned.
“On the basis of their estimated turnover a penalty payment of 182 EUR is imposed on the FEI until the date of implementation of the provisional measures.
The College has accepted that GCT/GCL can not modify unilaterally the invitation rules, but that initiatives could have been taken to approach the intended result. On the basis of the allocated turnover a penalty payment of 466 EUR has been imposed until the Investigation and Prosecution Service considers that there has been a reasonable degree of implementation of the provisional measures,” reads the press release.
**decision of December 20th 2017:
PRESS RELEASE 21 December 2017 from Belgian Competition Authority stated:
The Competition College of the BCA imposes interim measures in the context of competitions of the Global Champions Tour The Competition College of the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) has imposed on 20 December 2017 interim measures on the organisers of the Global Champions Tour (GCT), the Global Champions League (GCL) and on the FEI in order to ensure that until the closing of the case on the merit at least 60% of the invitations for GCT events are sent to riders on the basis of their ranking in the official ranking of the FEI, and should not depend on the question whether riders are members of a paying team of the GCL.
A rider and a horse stable filed a complaint and requested interim measures regarding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concluded between the FEI, the GCT and the GCL which restricts the percentage of invitations to be sent for GCT events exclusively on the basis of their ranking from 60% to 30%.
They consider that this decrease illegally harms riders who are not members of a paying team of the GCL. The College considered prima facie that it is not unreasonable to think that this decrease might constitute an infringement on competition law. This decision is only concerned with the taking of interim measures. It does not prejudge the decision that may be taken after the closing of the investigation in respect of a possible infringement
The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) is an independent administrative authority that contributes to the definition and implementation of competition policy in Belgium. Concretely, the BCA pursues anti-competitive practices, such as cartels and abuses of a dominant position, and reviews the main merger operations. The BCA cooperates with the other competition authorities of the member states of the European Union and the European Commission within the European Competition Network (ECN)