Retail giants Argos and Littlewoods have been fined a record £22.5m by the UK’s trading watchdog for fixing the price of toys and games. Argos, Littlewoods, with manufacturer Hasbro, entered into agreements to fix the prices of Hasbro toys and games between 1999 and May 2001, breaching competition rules, the Office of Fair Trading said.
Argos was fined £17.3m ($27.5m) reflecting its high turnover, and Littlewoods was fined £5.4m.
Hasbro, however, was granted full leniency because it provided crucial evidence that initiated the investigation and had its potential penalty of £15.6m waived, the OFT said.
Both Argos and Littlewoods rejected the ruling and said they would appeal. This could mean that Hasbro’s relationship with both Argos and Littlewoods could be irreparably damaged, which would be bad news for Transformers in the UK.
