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JD Sports Takeover of Footasylum Raises U.K. Competition Concern

JD Sports Takeover of Footasylum Raises U.K. Competition Concern

(Bloomberg) --

JD Sports Fashion Plc’s purchase of Footasylum may harm competition and leave shoppers worse off, the U.K.’s antitrust regulator said.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority in a statement on Tuesday said its provisional view is that the transaction could lead to “a substantial lessening of competition in the retail supply of sports-inspired casual footwear.” The regulator, which has a final review deadline of May 11, asked for feedback on its findings.

“While JD Sports is the largest retailer in this market with around 375 stores nationally and Footasylum is smaller, the CMA’s detailed investigation has provisionally found that they compete closely, and surveyed customers indicated that there are only a small number of other retailers that they would consider buying from,” the watchdog said.

The companies were not able to convince the authority that “efficiencies would be rivalry-enhancing, merger-specific and sufficient to prevent” the lessening of competition it has provisionally found, the CMA said.

JD Sports said that the CMA’s probe didn’t reflect the current market, “where a large number of retailers selling third-party brands compete not only with each other, but also with major online pure-players.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Thomas Mulier

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