JD Sports and Footasylum have been fined almost £5m for sharing commercially sensitive information during an investigation by the UK competition watchdog, which accused them of deleting phone records, and found their chairmen to have held multiple clandestine meetings including one caught on video in a car park near Bury in Greater Manchester.
JD Sports bought the trainer retailer for £90m in 2019 in a deal that was subsequently subjected to an in-depth investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, during which time the companies were ordered to operate as separate businesses.
