British sportswear companies JD Sports and Footasylum have been fined a total of £4.7m (about €5.6m) for violating a CMA regulation.
The CMA, which in November asked JD Sports to sell Footasylum over antitrust concerns, said the two companies’ directors violated a regulation by sharing “commercially sensitive information.”
Bosses also failed to report the breaches, which “seriously hampered the CMA’s ability to act quickly and prevent the information from being shared.” The regulator said failure to use adequate safeguards made the breaches “almost inevitable.” made.
JD Sports bought Footasylum in 2019 for 90 million British pounds (about 108 million euros). In November, the CMA ordered JD Sports to sell Footasylum’s 65 stores. The decision was based on the decision that customers would be “worse off” as a result of the merger of the two sportswear retailers.
In November, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that JD Sports chief executive Peter Cowgill and Footasylum chief executive Barry Brown flouted the CMA’s order by meeting in a car park in the town of Bury.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Karenita Haalck