Ben Van Rompuy speaks at competition law conference in Lausanne
On 12 September 2025, Dr. Ben Van Rompuy participated in the conference “Playing by the Rules: the Intersection of Competition Law and Sports”, organised by the University of Lausanne.
Van Rompuy spoke on the “Abuse of Dominance” panel, alongside Jean-François Bellis (Managing Partner, Van Bael & Bellis) and Benoît Keane (Solicitor & Avocat, Keane Legal). The discussion was moderated by Professor Vincent Martenet.
In his remarks, he discussed some of the conceptual challenges that arise when seeing sports governance through the lens of unilateral conduct, such as the application of the single economic unit doctrine (suggesting that a sports association cannot be viewed both as an undertaking and association of undertakings for the same regulatory activity) and the definition of the relevant (labour) market. Moreover, he explored exploitative theories of harm and their significance in addressing power imbalances between sports associations and athletes.
More information about the conference can be found here.