JD Sports broke competition law with Leicester City price fixing

sgt_wilko

sgt_wilko

Roofer
JD Sports and Leicester City FC “colluded to restrict competition” in the sales of the football club’s clothing, including its replica kit, the CMA has found.

The pair admitted to breaking competition law across three seasons.
In August 2018, it agreed to stop selling Leicester City-branded clothing online for the 2018/19 season and in January 2019, agreed that it would not undercut the football club online by making the club’s merchandise exempt from a company-wide promotional offer of free online delivery for all orders over £70.
This practice continued until at least January 2021.
Leicester have been handed a £880,000 fine, however, JD Sports escaped financial penalty after bringing the matter to the CMA’s attention in 2021.

The retailer approached the CMA for leniency after making the watchdog aware of the agreement and was granted full immunity from any fines.

JD said that no current of former directors, or any of its senior management team were involved in the conduct.

It added: “JD has taken a number of steps to strengthen its competition compliance programme and the board reaffirms its commitment to making the necessary resource available, internal and external, to ensure that this is embedded into its daily operations.”

The CMA executive director of enforcement Michael Grenfell said: “Strong and unimpeded competition between retailers is essential to consumers’ ability to shop around for the best deals.

Football fans are well-known for their loyalty towards their teams. In this case we have provisionally found that Leicester City FC and JD Sports colluded to share out markets and fix prices – with the result that fans may have ended up paying more than they would otherwise have done. Both parties have now admitted their involvement, allowing us to bring the investigation to a swift conclusion
 
sgt_wilko said:
JD Sports and Leicester City FC “colluded to restrict competition” in the sales of the football club’s clothing, including its replica kit, the CMA has found.

The pair admitted to breaking competition law across three seasons.
In August 2018, it agreed to stop selling Leicester City-branded clothing online for the 2018/19 season and in January 2019, agreed that it would not undercut the football club online by making the club’s merchandise exempt from a company-wide promotional offer of free online delivery for all orders over £70.
This practice continued until at least January 2021.
Leicester have been handed a £880,000 fine, however, JD Sports escaped financial penalty after bringing the matter to the CMA’s attention in 2021.

The retailer approached the CMA for leniency after making the watchdog aware of the agreement and was granted full immunity from any fines.

JD said that no current of former directors, or any of its senior management team were involved in the conduct.

It added: “JD has taken a number of steps to strengthen its competition compliance programme and the board reaffirms its commitment to making the necessary resource available, internal and external, to ensure that this is embedded into its daily operations.”

The CMA executive director of enforcement Michael Grenfell said: “Strong and unimpeded competition between retailers is essential to consumers’ ability to shop around for the best deals.

Football fans are well-known for their loyalty towards their teams. In this case we have provisionally found that Leicester City FC and JD Sports colluded to share out markets and fix prices – with the result that fans may have ended up paying more than they would otherwise have done. Both parties have now admitted their involvement, allowing us to bring the investigation to a swift conclusion
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Do fans get some money back then?
 
Shameful.
Sounds very hollow to say we value fans' loyalty by holding down the price of season tickets - and then rip them off by preventing replica kits from being sold on-line by a sports wear retailer so they could charge more in the club chop.
 
Very underhand by a club that promotes itself as a people’s club. Another nearly million quid p*sped up the wall along with Rudkins millions.

If we are having a new beginning isn’t it time Rudkin and Whelan was removed and somebody else brought in to do a reliable honest days work.

How the hell JD get away with it does stink though.
 
So the club are saying nobody was involved who is currently here ? So no internal action to be taken. But you can hardly smack your own arse, can you... 😂
 
Ibbo said:
So the club are saying nobody was involved who is currently here ? So no internal action to be taken. But you can hardly smack your own arse, can you... 😂
Click to expand...
The club is claiming that somebody in our retail dept did this deal with JD Sports without the knowledge of Top, Whelan etc, and that person has since left. I hope they're feeling thoroughly ashamed of themselves, whoever they are...
 
I thought you had to buy officially produced replicas anyway, if you’re that way inclined, else they would be snides?
 
mac said:
I thought you had to buy officially produced replicas anyway, if you’re that way inclined, else they would be snides?
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That corner shop in China is the place for jarg football shirts. £45 for a kids football shirt, fook off
 
Ibbo said:
So the club are saying nobody was involved who is currently here ? So no internal action to be taken. But you can hardly smack your own arse, can you... 😂
Click to expand...
I think you'll find that it's JD that denied that any of it's directors were involved "...JD said that no current of former directors, or any of its senior management team were involved in the conduct...". No mention of City directors, past or present.
 
ClaphamFox said:
The club is claiming that somebody in our retail dept did this deal with JD Sports without the knowledge of Top, Whelan etc, and that person has since left. I hope they're feeling thoroughly ashamed of themselves, whoever they are...
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Does sound a bit like all those politicians "losing their mobiles" don't it....
 
Most companies do due diligence...I don't believe no-one knew.
Toffs for example cannot even sell old school City tops now.
Any "retro" stuff is tightly controlled.
 
Burnmoorstreet said:
Very underhand by a club that promotes itself as a people’s club. Another nearly million quid p*sped up the wall along with Rudkins millions.

If we are having a new beginning isn’t it time Rudkin and Whelan was removed and somebody else brought in to do a reliable honest days work.

How the hell JD get away with it does stink though.
Click to expand...
JD reported it in the first place so get immunity from prosecution- no doubt they’ll drop other clubs in it. City had the fine reduced because they admittted the wrongdoing - that would have saved the authorities money in not having to investigate it further. The fine could have been 10% of global turnover of LCFC (not of King Power) for each year of the offence (three years by the looks of it).
 
Being reported that No offence was made by J D Sport hence no fine for them, so it was all Leicester City's fault hence the significant fine. The person or persons involved in this transaction have not been named. The problem is the club and indirectly the fans will end up paying this fine. Somebody needs to have proceedings taken against them.
 
AlgarFox said:
Being reported that No offence was made by J D Sport hence no fine for them, so it was all Leicester City's fault hence the significant fine. The person or persons involved in this transaction have not been named. The problem is the club and indirectly the fans will end up paying this fine. Somebody needs to have proceedings taken against them.
Click to expand...
Well proceedings have been made against us and we’ve admitted it early to avoid a bigger fine. There’s very likely no possibility of going after the individual who made the decision.
 
The whole object of this shoddy and illegal deal was was to rip off fans. Our fans. I do not believe for a minute that senior management I.e. Susan Whelan was not aware of this. I think she has to go.

And taking Rudkin with her, a complete clear out.
 
I think it's standard in these things that the whistleblowers will get full immunity...in this case JD.
 
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