The U.K. Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an investigation into suspected violations of competition law by the Leicester City Football Club and JD Sports Fashion over the sale of club-branded products in the U.K. The replica shirts of the club, which won England’s FA Cup in May, are supplied by Adidas. The CMA said it had “reasonable grounds” for its suspicions, but it didn’t have sufficient evidence at this stage to prove infringement. JD and Leicester hastened to state that they were fully cooperating with the CMA in its investigation. At the end of last year, the CMA said that it was investigating potentially anti-competitive behavior regarding the price at which Glasgow Rangers replica football shirts were sold in the U.K. by JD as well as Greaves Sport, but nothing apparently came out of it. The shirts were supplied by Hummel. JD is already under the spotlight of the CMA over the unrelated and still unresolved case of JD’s acquisition of the British Footasylum chain in April 2019.
