Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 18 July 2013 – Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA) v European Commission, Kingdom of Belgium, and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

(Case C-204/11 P) ¹

(Appeals – Television broadcasting – Directive 89/552/EEC – Article 3a – Measures taken by the Kingdom of Belgium concerning events of major importance for the society of that Member State – Football World Cup – Decision declaring the measures compatible with European Union law – Statement of reasons – Articles 43 EC and 49 EC – Right to property)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Appellant: Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA) (represented by: A. Barav and D. Reymond, avocats)

Other parties to the proceedings: European Commission (represented by: E. Montaguti and N. Yerrell, acting as Agents, and M. Gray, Barrister), Kingdom of Belgium (represented by: C. Pochet and J.-C. Halleux, acting as Agents, and A. Joachimowicz and J. Stuyck, advocaten), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (represented by: S. Ossowski and J. Beeko, and Agents, assisted by T. de la Mare QC)

Re:

Appeal brought against the judgment of the General Court (Seventh Chamber) of 17 February 2011 in Case T-385/07 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) v Commission, dismissing an action seeking the annulment of Commission Decision 2007/479/EC of 25 June 2007 declaring compatible with Community law measures taken by Belgium pursuant to Article 3a(1) of Council Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 October 1989 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities (OJ 2007 L 180, p. 24)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

1.    Dismisses the appeal;

2.    Orders the Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA) to pay the costs.

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¹ OJ C 232, 6.8.2011.