Europe: EU Intervention into Sport--Meca-Medina & another v. Commission of the European Communities, European Court of First Instance, Case T-313/02.

• Position: Case Digest *: February 2005 - Europen Union - Brief article

The applicants were international long-distance swimmers who tested positive for the anabolic substance nandrolone. FINA, the international swimming federation, banned them for four years. On appeal to the CAS, two-year bans were substituted due to evidence that the drug was produced endogenously within the body.

On a separate action to the EU Commission, it was argued that the strict liability test in the anti-doping rules and the fixing of a specific amount of drugs that would lead to a ban was a concerted practice between the IOC and its accredited laboratories, and was anti-competitive and contrary to provisions guaranteeing...