Gameday for Football Agents: do the FFAR rules breach Article 101 TFEU? (Part 2)

This^[1] is Part 2 of a series of four articles on the 2026 ROGON^[2] (C-428/23) and RRC Sports^[3] (C-209/23) rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Part 1 (see here) introduced the two judgments and examined ROGON. RRC Sports concerns the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR), a new regulatory framework for football agents operating in the international transfer system, which introduced (among other rules) a mandatory licensing regime for football agents, caps on the fees that they can charge for their services, and restrictions on representation by the same agent of multiple parties to the same transfer.

This article turns to the core competition law questions in RRC Sports: whether the FFAR rules restrict competition by object; how they fare under the Wouters/Meca-Medina exception (the line of case law under which rules pursuing a legitimate public-interest objective fall outside Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) where they are necessary and proportionate to achieving that objective);^[4] and the application of Article 101(3) TFEU (exemption for restrictive agreements whose benefits outweigh their harm).

Article Outline:

• Passing the by-object test: how the FFAR mostly stay onside
  • The by-object test
  • The two rules that cross the line: loss of fees and no-approach
• The rules that survive the by-object test
  • The rules on agent remuneration
  • The licensing framework
  • The rules restricting multiple representation
  • The transparency rules
• Legitimate objectives: acceptable justifications under Wouters/Meca-Medina
  • Rules on remuneration: serve legitimate public interests
  • Licensing in the public interest
  • Curbing conflicts: multiple representation
  • Transparency without anti-competitive information exchange
• Table summarising the legitimate justifications under Wouters/Meca-Medina recognised by the CJEU
• Exemption under Article 101(3): can the by-object rules be saved?

Note: The authors formed part of the team that represented FIFA in the RRC Sports case.