European Competition Research Articles

Penalty shoot-outs are tough, but the alternating order is fair.

We compare conversion rates of association football (soccer) penalties during regulation or extra time with those during shoot-outs. Our data consists of roughly 50,000 penalties from the eleven most recent seasons in European men's football competitions. About one third of the penalties are from more than 1,500 penalty shoot-outs. We find that shoot-out conversion rates are significantly lower, even for regular penalty takers, and attribute this to worse performance of shooters rather than better performance of goalkeepers. We also find that, statistically, there is no advantage for either team in the usual alternating shooting order. Complemented by a number of detailed observations, these main findings underline that penalty shoot-outs represent a different condition requiring dedicated means of training and coaching.

Should mathematicians worry with PISA and TIMSS math results?

Since the end of last century, international large-scale assessment studies have been providing systematic information about countries’ education results. The news they convey regarding European education are not at all reassuring and have worsened with school closures and the disruption due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The size of the education losses and the distance of most European countries to other areas of the world, namely South East Asia, are often overlooked. A simple statistical analysis shows most European students are about one to two school years behind their peers in most advanced countries and regions, and the gap is increasing. These facts will negatively impact European workforce, economic competitiveness, and development. They will most likely also negatively impact mathematics higher education and research in our continent. To recognise the problem is the first step to cope with it. [1]

A Better Deal for Climate and European Competitiveness: Policy Proposals for the European Centre–Right

A Better Deal for Climate and European Competitiveness: Policy Proposals for the European Centre–Right

FIFA’s Football Agent Regulations and European Competition Law

Abstract We assess the relationship between professional sport and European Union competition law using the example of the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR), a set of rules enacted by FIFA, the world football governing body, to regulate the activities of football agents. The FFAR have been challenged under competition law before national courts and in arbitration proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The European Court of Justice has been asked to rule on the matter. The FFAR are the result of an anti-competitive decision by an association of undertakings. In particular, there is no exception for such agreements under the so-called Meca-Medina test. This analysis is supported by the European Court of Justice’s 2023 rulings in sports cases, in particular the European Superleague.

Probabilistic Analysis of Low-Emission Hydrogen Production from a Photovoltaic Carport

This article presents a 3D model of a yellow hydrogen generation system that uses the electricity produced by a photovoltaic carport. The 3D models of all key system components were collected, and their characteristics were described. Based on the design of the 3D model of the photovoltaic carport, the amount of energy produced monthly was determined. These quantities were then applied to determine the production of low-emission hydrogen. In order to increase the amount of low-emission hydrogen produced, the usage of a stationary energy storage facility was proposed. The Metalog family of probability distributions was adopted to develop a strategic model for low-emission hydrogen production. The hydrogen economy of a company that uses small amounts of hydrogen can be based on such a model. The 3D modeling and calculations show that it is possible to design a compact low-emission hydrogen generation system using rapid prototyping tools, including the photovoltaic carport with an electrolyzer placed in the container and an energy storage facility. This is an effective solution for the climate and energy transition of companies with low hydrogen demand. In the analytical part, the Metalog probability distribution family was employed to determine the amount of monthly energy produced by 6.3 kWp photovoltaic systems located in two European countries: Poland and Italy. Calculating the probability of producing specific amounts of hydrogen in two European countries is an answer to a frequently asked question: In which European countries will the production of low-emission hydrogen from photovoltaic systems be the most profitable? As a result of the calculations, for the analyzed year 2023 in Poland and Italy, specific answers were obtained regarding the probability of monthly energy generation and monthly hydrogen production. Many companies from Poland and Italy are taking part in the European competition to create hydrogen banks. Only those that offer low-emission hydrogen at the lowest prices will receive EU funding.

Commission

This overview highlights: (i) the Commission’s published report on the future of European competitiveness, (ii) a presentation of the planned structure of the new College of Commissioners and (iii) the State aid decision on approval of the prolongation of the enterprise investment scheme and venture capital trust scheme in Northern Ireland.

The Influence of Home-Court Advantage in Elite Basketball: A Systematic Review.

This systematic review analyzes the factors that influence home advantage in basketball across various competitions in the United States and Europe. Through an investigation of English- and Spanish-language articles published in EBSCO, Scopus, Consensus, and Web of Science between 2010 and 2024 related to home advantage in basketball, 1682 articles were initially identified. After applying specific filters to ensure that only articles concerning National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), Euroleague, Spanish basketball, and European basketball were considered, 39 articles met the final requirements for in-depth analysis. The studies analyzed in this review suggested that player performance, player position, and sleep influenced home advantage in competitions in Europe and the United States. Fan behavior had a bigger impact in European competitions, where teams from capital cities have a lower home advantage. In the United States, where teams must travel long distances to play, several studies indicated that teams traveling eastwards tend to perform more strongly than teams traveling westwards. Also of note is that, in many cases, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions reduced home advantage. This review identifies factors contributing to home advantage in basketball, compares competitions in different regions, and proposes ideas for future research such as a greater focus on women's competitions, the impact of television, and the introduction of new performance indicators.

The European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI): in search for legitimacy and resilience of European standardisation

European standardisation, a key institution for the functioning of the EU single market, functions at the crossroads of private rule-making and public policy. Recently, it has been subjected to fierce scrutiny by the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. Expressed concerns relate to the legal value of standards and the legitimacy of institutions creating them but have broader implications for European competitiveness, highlighting the strategic role of standards. By far much of this critique has been directed towards the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the EU’s crown jewel of technology standardisation. ETSI’s normative power manifests itself in policymaking, legislation and market processes, rendering it an interesting organisation to study as a proxy to understand the legitimacy and resilience of European standardisation. Against this backdrop, this introduction sets the theoretical and legal context for this Special Issue. Upon discussing the background and dynamic of European standardisation, it provides a theoretical framework for ‘crises' and ‘legitimacy’, tailoring it to the particular case of ETSI and the challenges it faces at the policy and judicial level. Lastly, it provides a critical reflection on the Research Articles in this Special Issue, linking them to the current discourses on legitimacy and resilience.

Morphological Characteristics of Elite-Level Cadet Female Handball Players in European Competition

Morphological Characteristics of Elite-Level Cadet Female Handball Players in European Competition

Fundamental procedural rights and ECB banking supervision: An ECB Hearing Officer?P. Chirulli

This article explores the possibility of establishing a position at the European Central Bank (ECB) along the lines of the Hearing Officer (HO) provided for in European competition law; a position whose task would be to safeguard the effective exercise of procedural rights throughout the supervisory proceedings carried out by the ECB. To this end, after identifying the reasons that might justify such a regulatory intervention, the article outlines the legislation on the HO laid down in European competition law. It then illustrates some functions that could be entrusted to the HO of the ECB and the regulatory instruments that could concretely be used to establish the HO position. In the conclusions, the article suggests that the introduction of this position within the framework of the ECB should be undertaken gradually.

A systematic content analysis of innovation in European competition law

Innovation plays a crucial role in defining competitive dynamics. Given this fact, one might expect ‘innovation’ to play a consistent role in antitrust law. The present article conducts a systematic content analysis of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union to test this hypothesis. The findings suggest that EU courts treat innovation inconsistently in competition law cases, often assigning different weight to innovation in similar contexts and neglecting central parameters agreed upon in the literature. To address this inconsistency, the article proposes measures to maintain the predictability of competition law analysis while giving innovation a more central role in the definition of relevant markets, evaluation of market power, and assessment of practices.

The Privacy/Antitrust Curse: Insights from GDPR Application in Competition Law Proceedings

In response to the emergence of large online platforms whose business model revolves around the collection and processing of personal data, it is usually suggested that competition and data protection are synergistic, hence requiring an integrated approach. In this respect, Europe represents the testing ground for evaluating how privacy breaches may inform antitrust investigations. Indeed, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the one side and the German Facebook antitrust decision on the other side are considered the benchmarks of this new stance aimed at linking market power and data power. This paper tests the concrete viability of such an approach, analyzing how data protection rules and principles have been applied in antitrust proceedings by the European Commission and national competition authorities. Notably, the paper aims at demonstrating the fallacy of the narrative which describes the relationship between privacy and antitrust in terms of synergy and complementarity. Furthermore, the paper maintains that the principles recently affirmed by the European Court of Justice in Meta do not appear conclusive in addressing the issue. The strategic use of privacy as a business justification to pursue anticompetitive advantages currently addressed in the numerous Apple ATT investigations indeed shows the tension between these areas of law. Therefore, rather than strengthening the antitrust enforcement against gatekeepers and their data strategies, the inclusion of privacy harms in antitrust proceedings turns out to be a potential curse for competition authorities, providing players with an opportunity for regulatory gaming to undermine the antitrust enforcement. JEL Codes: D83, K21, L12, L4

Neuromuscular Load in Professional Women's Handball: Segmentation of the Player Load and the Impacts at Group and Individual Level.

Handball is a team sport characterised by physical interaction with other opponents. This interaction produces a high load on the players that can manifest itself in various ways, from discomfort to prolonged injuries due to tears caused by excessive load. In order to establish correct protocols for application in women's teams, context- and gender-specific reference data must be available. For this reason, the present research aims to find out how women's teams in European competitions prepare for decisive matches during the match week, analysing the load in a segmented way and the level of specificity that should be achieved in training. Ex post facto research was used in which a total of 17 players belonging to a women's first division handball team in Spain participated. The variables player load and impacts extracted from the use of Wimu ProTM inertial devices were analysed. The results showed a high neuromuscular load in players at this competitive level, especially in the variable impacts, reaching values per session of up to 1000 impacts. The individuality analyses show that the load varies significantly depending on the subject, which is why it is considered essential to establish protocols for strength work and load control in the most specific way possible.

State aid for broadband network deployment: National and subnational governance mechanisms, 2003–2023

This paper examines the governance models of State aid measures for broadband network deployment in European Union Member States. The research is based on 199 decision letters collected from the European Commission's competition cases database, published between 2003 and 2023. Deploying a theory-driven content analysis approach, the analysis reveals and categorises a variety of governance models. These models vary regarding the authority responsible for the decision-making and, in the case of national schemes, the authority responsible for the implementation, including centralised and decentralised arrangements. Different legacies and institutional set-ups explain the governance models, including the typology of state structures, the constitutional powers, the traditions of participation in the telecommunication sector, policy diffusion and regional development. There are several possible pathways to a gradual transition from one model to another. The design of flexible national schemes, which offer subnational authorities the option to implement them in their regions or to rely on central management agencies for specific tasks adapted to their interests, resources and capacities, could be the optimal solution to prevent the launch of ad hoc measures by subnational authorities and to adapt to different institutional arrangements.

Another sleeping giant? Environmental issue preferences in the 2019 European Parliament elections

Seminal works have highlighted a growing polarisation regarding the environment, with supporters advocating for immediate emissions reduction and others downplaying or even denying human-caused climate change. Despite this debate, little attention has been focused on how voters’ environmental preferences influence their electoral behaviour. Using the metaphor of the ‘sleeping giant’ from European Union politics literature, the article empirically explores how environmental issue preferences impact voting choices. Analysing stacked data from the 2019 European Election Study, the article examines the phenomenon of environmental issue voting by shifting the unit of analysis from individuals to party-voter dyads. Results reveal that environmental preferences moderately, yet significantly, affect vote choice. This effect is more pronounced among left-leaning voters and in countries where the environmental issue is more salient among the public. Our findings shed light on patterns of environmental preference and their role in European electoral competition.

Coordination Rights, Competition Law and Varieties of Capitalism

Competition law is a constitutive institution in capitalist markets, establishing the rules for when interfirm coordination is allowed and where competition is required (Paul, 2020). Yet comparativists have spent decades debating the varieties of capitalism framework—which places the issue of coordination at the center of the distinction between capitalist types—while paying virtually no attention to cross-national variation in antitrust rules. This article develops an original theoretical framework to conceptualize the relationship between competition law and the organization of capitalism. We go beyond the usual binaries (coordinated vs. liberal market economies, “restrictive” vs. “permissive” antitrust regimes) to disentangle two dimensions of the law that fundamentally shape patterns of coordination and competition both across regulatory jurisdictions and over time. Applying our framework to analyze the evolution of American and European competition law, we show how a comparative coordination rights framework can be used to conceptualize key institutional changes within contemporary capitalist systems.

Financial Performance of the English Football Clubs

The financial performance of twenty English football clubs over the period 2013-22 is examined in this study with correlation and panel data analysis. Three performance measures are used: Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Profit Margin. The size of clubs and their liquidity, leverage, efficiency, cash flow efficiency, and turnover per employee are employed as explanatory variables of performance. Sporting data, including attendance rate, the number of wins, the uncertainty in the Premier League, participation in the Premier League or not, and the presence in UEFA’s European club competitions, are also assessed. The empirical findings accentuate a positive relationship between performance and liquidity, efficiency, cash flow efficiency, and revenue per employee. The opposite is the case for leverage. Wins are positively related to ROA, while the opposite relationship is found for the uncertainty factor. Finally, the presence of clubs in the Premier League is positively associated with their financial performance

Tourism Competitiveness and Mobile Data: A Grey Relational Analysis for European Entrepreneurship Pre & During Pandemic

Abstract The tourism country’s competitiveness is important especially when countries strive for bigger market shares as European countries are. The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on tourism and the entire tourism industry must be rethinking and reshaping given some opportunities and challenges to the entrepreneurs, local communities, local administrations, governments of competitiveness destinations. In this paper we measured if the Google and Apple mobility indices cand predict (or not) the movement of TTCI during pandemic compared with pre-pandemic TTCI ranks by using grey system theory and statistical methods. The aim of the paper is to validate the Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) as identifier of the good predictor (statistically significant for p-value< 0.05) for European tourism competitiveness (measured by TTCI) in particular conditions, especially before and during COVID-19 pandemic time by take into consideration the Google Mobility and Apple Mobility data and their relationship with overnight stays for 11 European countries. To validate the GRA as method for good and accurate predictor for tourism competitiveness for TTCI 2021 (during COVID-19 pandemic time) a GLM – General Linear Model ANOVA with interaction effects and Tukey HSD Post Hoc Multiple Comparisons was applied. Our results validated the powerful of GRA for tourism competitiveness, statistically significant according to GLM with interaction effects, and emphasis (especially for entrepreneurs) that the overnight stays will give the right rank on top of tourism competitiveness, prior to other ITC support as Google and Apple Mobility indices proved by reflection of overnights on TTCI 2021 – during pandemic.

Artificial Intelligence, data protection and medical device regulations: squaring the circle with a historical perspective in Europe

PurposeThis manuscript presents a parallel among important EU legal frameworks, such as the Medical Device Regulations and General Data Protection Regulation and economic-historical challenges faced by European citizens. This parallel offers a prospective for understanding the direction taken by policymakers for forthcoming regulations, such as the European Health Data Space and the AI-Act.MethodThe paper describes key commonalities and differences among those regulations, which may help scholars working with AI in medicine, navigating this articulated legal framework.ResultsThe European Union journey started with the European Coal and Steel Community, enforced after the WWII for nurturing European physical reconstruction and as a mean for peacekeeping: without coil it was not possible to transform steel, and with shared control of steel it was not possible for individual member states to build war weapons.ConclusionsIn this century, modern coal are data and modern steel is the AI, which is a crucial enabler for European economy growth and competitiveness, and, potentially, a powerful war weapon. Ensuring a fair data-sharing and correct use of AI is crucial for sustainable development, peace, and democracy in Europe and beyond.

Home Advantage and Away Disadvantage of Turkish Football Teams in European Competitions

Home advantage (HA) is used as a concept that means teams win more matches and score more goals than their opponents on their home field. Similarly, away disadvantage (AD) can be explained as teams scoring fewer points and scoring fewer goals away than their opponents. In this study, the matches played by 5 Turkish teams, played at least 30 matches in European competitions, between the 1991/1992 and 2022/2023 seasons, a total of 784 matches were analyzed and team-specific HA and AD values were estimated using Generalized Estimation Models. According to the results, all 5 Turkish teams have a significant HA in European competitions, but all teams also experience an AD and there is no difference among the teams in terms of both HA and AD. Furthermore, Belgian teams were found to be the teams where Turkish teams experienced the most home advantage and did not experience an away disadvantage. On the other hand, the teams with the lowest HA value and the highest AD value of Turkish teams were found to be Ukrainian teams. The results of the study show that playing in Türkiye is difficult for all European teams and that the AD of Turkish teams in countries with higher fan support is lower than in other countries.