Two of the North’s biggest retailers, Argos and Littlewoods, were last month fined a record £22.6 million for fixing the prices of Hasbro toys, such as Monopoly and Action Man.
The fine followed a lengthy investigation by the Office of Fair Trading into suspected anti-competitive behaviour that occurred between 1999 and May 2001. The OFT found that the retailers had come to an agreement to keep prices artificially high and that once that agreement ended prices fell dramatically; in Monopoly’s case by £4 a game.
Argos was the hardest hit, with a fine of £17.28m, whilst Littlewoods face a bill of £5.37m. Hasbro escaped a fine, as it blew the whistle on the agreements after it was fined £4.95m in a separate action late last year.
Despite the OFT’s strident stance against this “cynical manipulation of prices” both retailers reacted angrily and protest their innocence. Littlewoods thought the OFT “failed to produce any convincing evidence”. Argos described the ruling as “wholly unfounded and unjustified”. MD Kate Swann added, “We are extremely surprised that the OFT is prepared to base its case on contradictory and unreliable evidence from Hasbro.”