Rangers Football Club, JD Sports and Elite Sports have been fined a total of more than £2 million by the competition watchdog after it found they fixed the prices of replica football kits.

The Competition and Markets Authority, which has been investigating the matter since December 2020, said in a provisional report in June that all three broke competition laws by fixing the prices of some Rangers-branded products.

Today it said Rangers only fixed the price of specific adult home short-sleeved shirts from September to mid-November in 2018.

The CMA added that all three worked together to stop JD Sports undercutting the retail price of the shirt on Elite’s Gers Online store.

JD Sports has been fined £1.485 million, Elite Sports £459,000 and Rangers £225,000.

JD Sports issued a statement saying: “JD has co-operated fully with the CMA throughout this investigation, including taking swift steps to apply for leniency and agreeing to settle the investigation.

“As a consequence, the CMA has applied a substantial discount in determining its final penalty of £1.485 million. In accordance with the CMA’s standard terms of settlement, JD will not be appealing against this penalty.

“On 7 June 2022, JD announced that it would recognise a provision of approximately  £2 million  in its financial statements for the 52 weeks to 29 January 2022 representing the Group’s best estimate of the liability payable in respect of this matter, including associated legal costs.

“No directors or senior management of JD were involved in the offending conduct, which took place in 2018-2019.

“JD has taken a number of steps to strengthen its competition compliance programme and is committed to ensuring that this is embedded into its daily operations.”