Conduct of the Competition and Markets Authority

That this House recognises JD Sports Fashion plc (JD Sports) as a leading UK retailer and one of the largest private sector employers in the North West, including 4,000 staff at its Bury headquarters; notes JD Sports merger with Footasylum plc, the Rochdale based retailer, which the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is proposing to unwind on competition grounds and in doing so, deliver an uncertain future for the 2,500 staff and 70 stores of Footasylum across the UK at a time of retail sector fragility; expresses deep concern that the CMA has failed to understand the dynamic and highly competitive nature of retail in the UK today, evident to shoppers on high streets in towns and cities, along with those shopping on their devices across the UK, and that the CMA has instead relied on ill-suited methods of analysis including traditional surveys outside stores; notes that Footasylum is only a small market player which the CMA itself recognises as having a market share of around 5 per cent; urges the CMA to consider all evidence provided by all parties, including JD Sports, demonstrating that the acquisition of Footasylum is pro-competitive and pro-consumer; and calls on the Government to take all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure that the CMA does not fail consumers or Footasylum staff by rigidly sticking to ill-suited methods of analysis and a limited evidential base, whilst protecting jobs and supporting the economy in the North West.