ISU, Royal Antwerp, European Superleague & employment relations in sport

The ISU, Royal Antwerp and the European Superleague cases have upheld athletes’ individual employment rights and provided access to national courts to challenge overly restrictive measures pursuant to EU competition law, amongst other things. The immediate impact on the labour relations environment in sport, however, is less obvious. This article discusses the effects of the CJEU decisions for employment relations and the broader trade union movement in sport. It considers the decisions’ effect on collective bargaining, highlights the effectiveness of independent players’ associations as a countervailing power to regulatory power and discusses whether the decisions may be a catalyst for the greater use of social dialogue as a mode of governance insofar as concerns regulation of the labour market