Translation of "règle dite du milieu " (French → English) :

Mr. Saunderson: You are saying that we should change the rules in midstream and in the middle of an implementation period.

The year 2002 saw the application for the first time of the so-called "n+2" rule.

Already in 1999, the Commission rejected a complaint against the UEFA home and away rule, on the basis that this is a sporting rule that is a necessary part of the organisation of sporting competitions and as such therefore falls outside the scope of competition law.

The European Commission has taken a favourable view of the compatibility with the competition rules of certain provisions in the Visa International payment card scheme, in particular the so-called "no-discrimination rule" and the modified rules on cross border services.

The Commission takes the view that the UEFA Cup rule to the effect that each club must play its home match at its own ground ("at home and away from home" rule) is a sports rule that does not fall within the scope of the Treaty's competition rules.

The Directive also includes rules for payment systems which are not based on netting but on gross settlement systems (where each payment order is settled individually on a real time basis as it arises during the day): The proposed Directive would also exempt payment systems from national rules giving retroactive effect to the insolvency of a participant in a payment system, such as the zero-hour rule. Such retroactive effect allows the liquidator of an insolvent institution to challenge payment orders which have already been introduced into the payment system, thus leading to the unwinding of the settlement operation. This unwinding is h ...[+++]ighly disruptive and can lead to systemic risk. The same is true for revocation of payment orders. Revocation of a large payment order in a payment system during the settlement process, could lead to systemic risk. The Directive would therefore bar revocation of payment orders after the moment contractually fixed by the payment system participants. The insolvency of a participant in a payment system, insofar as it concerned its dealings with the payment system, would be governed by the insolvency law of the country where the payment system was located, according to the proposed Directive. This would avoid conflicts of law and the ensuing legal uncertainty and thus facilitate cross-border participation in payment systems. Collateral security is pledged by the participants in a payment system in order to secure its exposures against the other participants. When collateral security is provided in a cross-border arrangement, its realisation in case of default of the pledging participant can be hindered by conflicts of law which may either weaken the collateral security or even render it unenforceable. In order to ensure collateral security can be realised immediately and in priority over all other creditors (so as not to jeopardise the liquidity of the other participants in the system, i.e. to avoid systemic risk) in the case of a defaul ...