JD Sports broke competition law with Leicester City, CMA finds

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally found that Leicester City FC and JD Sports colluded to restrict competition in the sales of Leicester City-branded clothing, including replica kit, in the UK.

As part of an investigation which began in September 2021, the CMA has today issued a statement revealing that Leicester City FC and its parent companies have admitted to the football club's participation in the alleged arrangement, resulting in a fine of £880,000.

However, as JD Sports reported the illegal conduct and admitted its participation by way of a leniency application, it will not receive a fine provided that it "continues to co-operate and to comply with the other conditions of the CMA’s leniency policy".

JD Sports emphasised that no current or former directors, or any of its senior management team were involved in the conduct, adding that it had taken a number of steps to strengthen its competition compliance programme. 

The case relates to the following arrangement between Leicester City FC and JD Sports:

• In August 2018, that JD Sports would stop selling Leicester City-branded clothing online for the 2018/19 season.
• In January 2019, that JD Sports 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.
• By July 2020, that JD Sports 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."