The UCI has lost its appeal against a ruling which stopped its plans to introduce gear restrictions in the peloton, after a legal challenge from SRAM.
On Wednesday, the Belgian Market Court upheld the Belgian Competition Authority’s (BCA) decision to suspend the UCI’s maximum gear ration standard.
Last year, the UCI attempted to introduce the Maximum Gear Ratio Standard, which limits bikes to a 54×11 top gear. The BCA said last year that the standard “generates disproportionate negative effects on a sports equipment supplier, namely SRAM”.
This week, a press release from the BCA read: “In its judgment, the Market Court confirms the validity of the provisional measures ordered by the BCA and finds, in particular, that: (i) the BCA had jurisdiction to intervene in this case because of possible effects of the technical standard on the Belgian territory; (ii) the BCA rightly concluded that there was a prima facie restriction of competition due to the UCI’s failures to apply transparent, objective, and non-discriminatory criteria when developing the standard.”
