JD Sports Fashion and its largest shareholder Pentland Group have been fined by the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) for breaching an order related to its acquisition of Footasylum.
The CMA this week issued a GBP300,000 (US$394,000) fine to the retailer for failure to comply with the requirements of an initial enforcement order it issued under Section 72 of the Enterprise Act 2002.
In its notice, the CMA said the retailer failed to comply with the order when Footasylum closed a store in Wolverhampton, UK.
“Pentland and JD Sports have, without reasonable excuse, failed to comply in certain respects with the requirements imposed on them by the initial enforcement order issued by the CMA under section 72 of the EA02 on 17 May 2019,” the notice reads.
In May, the UK competition watchdog blocked JD Sports’ proposed takeover of Footasylum saying it would lead to “substantial lessening of competition nationally” and leave shoppers with fewer discounts or lower quality customer service.
The deal had reached Phase 2 of the CMA’s investigations in which decisions are made by independent inquiry groups chosen from the CMA’s panel members who come from a variety of backgrounds.
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By GlobalDataJD Sports had submitted a takeover offer of GBP90.1m for Footasylum in April last year, which the boards of both companies accepted.
