Manchester United accused of kit price fix

Competition watchdogs are set to find 11 companies, including Manchester United and the English FA, guilty of fixing the price of replica football kits, it emerged today.

The Office of Fair Trading said it was writing the companies setting out why it proposes to find that they "entered into a number of agreements to fix the price of football kits manufactured and supplied by Umbro, infringing Chapter I of the Competition Act 1998".

The companies involved are: Umbro Holdings Limited, JJB Sports plc, John David Sports plc, Sports Soccer Limited, Allsports Limited, Blacks Leisure Group plc, Manchester United Football Club plc, Debenhams plc, Florence Clothiers (Scotland) Limited (trading as Sportsconnection), Sportsetail Limited and The Football Association Limited.

The 11 companies now have the opportunity to make oral and written representations which will be taken into account before the OFT makes a final decision.

Shares in the firms named slid on the London Stock Exchange.

Manchester United fell 5% to 112 3/4 p, JD Sport was down 3% at 337 1/2 p, JJB Sports fell 6% to 347 1/2 p, Debenhams was down 2% at 375p and Blacks Leisure was 4% lower at 227 1/2 p.

A spokesman for Manchester United refused to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to do so before he had seen the OFT's proposed decision.

The OFT investigation was launched in June last year amid mounting concern that the price of replica kits was being kept artificially high.

As part of the inquiry, dawn raids took place at the offices of at least two of the companies accused - Umbro and JJB Sports - an OFT spokesman confirmed.

It is not the first time the OFT has looked into allegations of anti-competitive agreements involving replica kits.

In 1999 it carried out inquiries, but additional powers given to it in the 1998 Competition Act - which came into force in March last year - has helped investigators.

If found guilty of price-fixing the companies involved could be fined up to 10% of their turnover.

The OFT spokesman said: "There are a number of agreements we looked at and there are a number of Umbro replica kits which include Manchester United and England.

"By their very nature they are complex agreements. We had to look through a large volume of evidence and contact a large number of parties.

"It is a market we have been aware of for some time."

The 11 companies have seven weeks to make written representations and nine weeks to make oral representations.

A final decision by the OFT is expected in the autumn.

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