The British retail group JD Sports Fashion Plc has to pay a fine of almost 1.5 million British pounds (1.7 million euros) for illegal price fixing. The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it would accept a corresponding order from the British competition authority, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). This was preceded by investigations by the CMA into the sporting goods retailer, the marketing company Elite Sports Group Limited, now trading as LBJ Sports Apparel Limited, and the Glasgow-based Rangers Football Club.
The three companies involved have been proven to have manipulated the prices for Rangers jerseys and other branded products by collusion between September 2018 and July 2019, according to a CMA statement published on Tuesday. Elite Sports and Rangers now also have to pay fines, albeit smaller than JD Sports.
The sporting goods retailer explained that it had fully cooperated with the competition authority’s investigations and had thus achieved a “significant reduction” in the fine. In June, the group had already formed corresponding provisions of two million British pounds in anticipation of penalties.
JD Sports also said in a statement that current executives were not involved in the incidents that happened more than three years ago. The retailer has now “taken a number of steps to strengthen its competition compliance program” and is working to “integrate this program into its day-to-day operations”.