The European Commission's clearance of Liberty Media / Dorna Sports and what it means for sports and competition law

On^[1] 23 June 2025, the European Commission unconditionally cleared Liberty Media Corporation's acquisition of Dorna Sports S.L. (Case M.11539 – Liberty Media / Dorna Sports)^[2]. Liberty Media holds the commercial rights to Formula 1, while Dorna organises and commercialises the FIM World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP). The clearance followed an in-depth investigation under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (the "EU Merger Regulation"), at the end of which the Commission concluded that the deal would not significantly impede effective competition in the internal market or a substantial part of it.

The transaction is unusual on several fronts. It brings the commercial rights to the two premier global motorsport championships under single ownership for the first time since 2006, when the same combination was prevented under the Commission's conditional clearance of CVC's acquisition of SLEC Holdings Limited, then the holding company of the Formula One Group (Case M.4066 – CVC/SLEC). It is also one of the few Phase II investigations^[3] to end in unconditional clearance. The decision is therefore both a doctrinal milestone for sports broadcasting rights and a case study in how much a market can change in nearly two decades.

This article analyses how the Commission reached that conclusion and why it matters. It places the deal among the earlier EU and national merger cases on sport, sets out the transaction and the 2006 CVC/SLEC decision against which the clearance is measured, and works through the Commission’s market definition and its horizontal and vertical analysis. It then discusses why an unconditional clearance of this kind is so rare, how far the Commission has moved since 2006, and what the decision means for the broadcasting, ownership and governance of sport in Europe.

Article Outline:

• Sport is no stranger to merger control
  • Case M.4066 – CVC/SLEC (Commission decision of 20 March 2006)
  • Case M.7000 – Liberty Global / Ziggo (Commission decision of 30 May 2018)
  • Décision 19-DCC-160 of 21 August 2019, INEOS / OGC Nice
• The transaction and the parties
• The 2006 precedent: CVC/SLEC
• Competitive assessment
  • Market definition: a step away from the 2006 approach
  • Horizontal assessment: no significant impediment on the narrowest plausible market
  • Vertical concerns: the John Malone / Liberty Global question
• Why the decision is noteworthy
  • Unconditional Phase II clearances are exceptionally rare
  • A materially different view from 2006
  • The 2024 Market Definition Notice in action
• What it means for sports law and the governance of sport in the EU
  • Sports properties are increasingly seen as media assets
  • Common ownership of the commercial rights to major sports properties is not in itself problematic
  • Governance and independence of sport
• Conclusion