The Competition and Markets Authority has fined JD Sports £4.3m after finding its chairman breached its rules by meeting the chief executive of Footasylum and exchanging commercially sensitive information.
The authority blocked a £90m takeover of Footasylum by JD Sports in September and banned the companies from sharing commercially sensitive information. It has now said that JD Sports’ Peter Cowgill and Footasylum’s Barry Bown met and discussed information including the latter’s financial performance and potential closure of stores.
JD Sports said the conclusions were “either incorrect or have been presented in a misleading manner”.
