Manchester City win legal battle against Premier League over APT rules

Manchester, Oct 7 (IANS) Manchester City have won the legal battle against Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction Rules after the league had blocked two of City's sponsorship deals from going through which was deemed unlawful by a tribunal.

This case was separate from the 115 charges that are being heard by an independent panel that Premier League have brought forward on the club.

The APT case revolves around the fair value of Associated Party deals and the APT is designed to make sure that any deals with connected parties are at a fair rate and to make sure the deals are not inflated.

"Following today’s publication of the Rule X Arbitral Tribunal Award, Manchester City Football Club thanks the distinguished members of the Arbitral Tribunal for their work and considerations and welcomes their findings," read the statement by the club on their website.

The Tribunal ruled that the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules have been found to be unlawful and the Premier League’s decisions on two specific MCFC sponsorship transactions have been set aside. The Tribunal found that both the original APT rules and the current, (amended) APT Rules violate UK competition law and violate the requirements of procedural fairness.

"The Premier League was found to have abused its dominant position and the Tribunal has determined both that the rules are structurally unfair and that the Premier League was specifically unfair in how it applied those rules to the Club in practice. The tribunal also claimed that the Premier League had reached the decisions in a procedurally unfair manner," the ruling stated.

"The rules were found to be discriminatory in how they operate, because they deliberately excluded shareholder loans. As well as these general findings on legality, the Tribunal has set aside specific decisions of the Premier League to restate the fair market value of two transactions entered into by the Club," it added.

The Tribunal also ruled that there was an unreasonable delay in the Premier League’s fair market value assessment of two of the Club’s sponsorship transactions, and so the Premier League breached its own rules.

The Premier League has said it welcomes the tribunal's findings, "which endorsed the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system … (but did) identify a small number of discrete elements of the rules which do not, in their current form, comply with competition and public law requirements".

"These elements can quickly and effectively be remedied by the League and clubs," Sky Sports quoted the Premier League as saying.

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