The club filed a lawsuit earlier this year, claiming the associated party transaction (APT) rules were anti-competitive.
City said in a statement on Monday that the tribunal had ruled the APT regulations “unlawful” and that the league had violated competition law by abusing a dominating position.
“The tribunal has found that the Premier League was particularly unfair in how it applied those rules to the club in practice, in addition to the fact that the rules are structurally unfair,” they continued. The Premier League’s rules compel any club, its players, manager or any ‘senior official’ to run dealings with ‘related parties’ past them.
Associated parties are businesses or individuals with a sizable financial or non-financial stake in the relevant club.
• Following that, the Premier League board examines each deal to see whether it thinks it represents a fair market value.
• The league claims that by removing a “reliance on enhanced commercial revenues linked to the club’s ownership,” the rule contributes to “fairness” throughout the division.
