• Private Equity and Common Ownership in Professional Rugby: Applying the Delivery Hero Standard (September 2025), available here

 

On 2 June 2025, the European Commission fined Delivery Hero and Glovo €329 million for engaging in anticompetitive practices, including the exchange of sensitive labour market information, market sharing, and no-poach agreements. Both companies settled, receiving a reduced penalty. Central to the decision was the Commission’s finding that Delivery Hero’s minority stake in Glovo created structural links that facilitated coordination, amounting to a “by object” infringement of Article 101 TFEU.

 

While rooted in the platform economy, the case has wider implications. It signals a stricter approach to minority shareholdings, labour market coordination, and information exchange between economically linked entities. This post examines how that reasoning could extend to professional rugby union, where private equity investment and cross-league ownership structures may create similar incentives, and risks, under EU competition law.

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• Sports Antitrust 2025: the year in review (March 2026), available here​​

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This briefing provides an overview of key developments in sports competition law during 2025, drawing on discussions from the inaugural European League of Sports Antitrust webinar.  The analysis highlights three core trends: the move toward more transparent and objective rule-making by governing bodies, increased scrutiny of labour market restrictions such as no-poach agreements and transfer systems, and the growing role of private enforcement through damages actions. It also examines how recent case law, including the CJEU’s “Sports Trilogy,” has tightened the standards applied to sporting regulations.

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