Large fines for replica football kit price-fixers

Ten businesses have been fined a total of £18.6 million by the OFT for fixing the price of Umbro replica football kit in breach of the Competition Act 1998. Agreements between some of the parties, which included many high street retailers, set the prices for the top selling short sleeved adult and junior shirt of the England team and for Manchester United football club. Other agreements involved the short sleeved adult and junior Chelsea, Glasgow Celtic and Nottingham Forest shirts or the entire England replica football kit.John Vickers, OFT Chairman, said: "The fines imposed reflect the seriousness of the price fixing in this case. Since we launched our investigation the prices of replica football shirts have fallen and consumers can now shop around and get a better price". For more information see here.Frontier advised the Football Association (FA) which, whilst also fined, benefited from the leniency provisions within the Competition Act.