The UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) recently announced it had imposed fines totalling over £2 million on Elite Sports (“Elite”), JD Sports, and Rangers FC for price fixing.

The CMA found that for varying periods of up to 10 months, all three entities had colluded to ensure that JD Sports did not undercut the retail price of Rangers replica football shirts from that sold on Elite’s Gers Online store. JD Sports and Elite were also found to have colluded on discounts for other Rangers-branded products, which is reflected in the increased fines they received of £1,485,000 and £459,000 respectively (Rangers’ fine was £225,000).

The CMA noted that at the time of the infringement, Elite manufactured and sold Rangers-branded merchandise directly through its Gers Online store and was viewed as the football club’s “retail partner”. Amid concerns that JD Sports was selling the Rangers replica shirt at a lower price than Elite, the three parties came to an understanding that JD Sports would increase its retail price of the shirt by nearly 10%, from £55 to £60, which brought its prices in line with those being charged on Elite’s Gers Online store.

The fines imposed upon the parties reflect a settlement discount. Settlement involves parties admitting they have infringed competition law in the course of an investigation and accepting a streamlined administrative process of the investigation in exchange for a discount on the penalty.

Elite and JD Sports also received leniency discounts in return for cooperating with the CMA’s investigation.

The CMA has also recently announced that it is carrying out a competition law investigation relating to JD Sports and Leicester City Football Club and the sale of Leicester City-branded products and merchandise.

This post was written by Scarlett Sullivan