Foxes fined £880,000 by competition watchdog
Leicester City FC have been fined £880,000 by the UK’s competition watchdog after admitting it restricted online sales of replica kits with JD Sports.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says both the Foxes and JD have admitted to breaking competition law over three seasons.
The arrangement between Leicester City and JD has been outlined by the CMA. In August 2018 JD Sports said it would stop selling Leicester City-branded clothing online for the 2018/19 season. In January 2019, JD Sports promised that it would not undercut Leicester City in terms of online sales for the 2019/20 season by applying a delivery charge to all orders of Leicester City-branded clothing – disapplying its company-wide promotional offer of free online delivery for all orders over £70. And in July 2020, JD Sports said it would continue to apply delivery charges to online orders of Leicester City-branded clothing for the 2020/21 season as well. This continued until at least 26 January 2021.
Michael Grenfell, executive director of Enforcement at the CMA, 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.
“The fine that Leicester City FC and its parent companies have agreed to pay sends a clear message to them and other businesses that anti-competitive collusion will not be tolerated.”
