Leicester City Football Club has today received a Statement of Objections from the Competition and Markets Authority, relative to its investigation into the sale of LCFC-branded products and merchandise, commenced in September 2021.
LCFC has cooperated fully with the CMA’s investigation, which related to the supply of limited volumes of replica kit and other branded clothing to JD Sports for resale over the course of two and a half seasons (2018/19, 2019/20 and the first half of the 2020/21 season).
No current Club directors or senior management were involved in the arrangements with JD Sports.
These arrangements related to a limited number of bulk orders by JD Sports, which were accepted by the Club’s retail sales team over the relevant period. There was no intention on the part of the Club to unlawfully restrict the resale of the goods supplied and no material financial advantage to be gained from doing so, given the limited amount of kit supplied to JD Sports.
However, the Club accepts the CMA’s findings and has taken steps to strengthen its training and compliance measures to ensure the Club’s retail operations fully comply with competition law.
The Club also wishes to clarify, and the CMA has acknowledged, that LCFC’s owners King Power and V&A Holding had no knowledge of or involvement in these sales arrangements.
