Regulation of Sport Activities and Right to Respect to Private Life under the European Convention on Human Rights

In Fédération Nationale des Syndicats Sportifs (FNASS) and others v. France (judgment of 18 January 2018, no. 48151/11 and 77769/13), the European Court of Human Rights assessed the compatibility between the right to private and family life and a French Order regulating unannounced anti-doping controls for sport professionals. According to the European Court of Human Rights, the impact of the disputed regulation on sport professionals’ right to private life is not disproportionate with respect to the legitimate necessity to protect public health and assure fairness and equality of opportunities among sport competitors. This decision confirms a specific approach characterising the, albeit limited, case-law elaborated by the European Court of Human Rights on the interplay between sport activities, on one hand, and the right to respect for private and family life, on the other. The European Court of Human Rights tends to highlight the leisure nature of sport activities more than the interests on the part of sport professionals. In relation to professional sport activities, the balancing test seems to place emphasis on public interest linked with the regulation of sport competitions more than on the right to privacy of sport professionals. Instead, when sport activities come into play in relation to their leisure nature, the European Court of Human Rights deeply stresses their importance as a means allowing persons to develop social relations and express personal identity.