Hundreds of thousands of consumers could receive payouts after Which?, the consumer group, announced that it was intending to sue JJB Sports on behalf of fans who were overcharged for football shirts.

The consumer body said that the case applied to total of one million shirts, and is appealing to the hundreds of thousands of customers who bought them to come forward. It said that a number of people have already come forward.

Using new legal powers granted under the Enterprise Act of 2002, Which? is the only body in the UK so far given powers to launch representative action on behalf of groups of consumers. It is being advised by Clyde & Co, a London law firm, which has already placed adverts in several regional papers encouraging football fans who bought the shirts in question to join the action.

JJB Sports was one of seven companies fined by the Office of Fair Trading in 2003 for running a cartel that fixed the price of England and Manchester United shirts during 2000 and 2001. The company strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Although the OFT ruling forced the company to pay £6.7 million to the Government, Which? is now seeking to claim damages to pay back the customers who were overcharged and is urging those who bought England and Manchester United shirts in 2000 and 2001 to make contact.

The consumer body is suing JJB Sports on behalf of customers who bought shirts from any one of the seven companies that were fined by the OFT, the others being: Allsports, Blacks Leisure Group, Manchester United, Sports Soccer, JD Sports and Umbro Holdings. This is because JJB Sports was the only firm still contesting the OFT’s decision at the time when Which? got its new legal powers.

If JJB Sports is told to pay out compensation, it could then try to claim some of that money back from other firms.

Malcolm Coles, online editor of Which?, told Times Online that hundreds of thousands of people had been affected by the price-fixing and that the action was a “test case”, which could have wide-ranging implications for other companies.

He gave warning that if Which? was successful in its claim, the consumer body had “others in mind” against whom it could also potentially launch proceedings.

Ingrid Gubbay, campaigns lawyer for Which?, said that it was hoped that the legal action against JJB Sports would at the least, lead to compensation of up to £20 per shirt – the amount it believes consumers had been overcharged.

Mr Coles said: “This is about football fans standing together united and saying they don’t want to be ripped off. We hope it will soon be payback time for JJB Sports. They ripped off their customer, so we think it’s only fair they should have to pay them back.

“A case like this has never been launched before so we need as much evidence as we can get. We can’t promise a big payout, but we’ll do all we can to get justice for consumers.”

He added that those affected should get in touch, even if they no longer have a receipt, as they may instead be asked to provide credit card details, photographic evidence or even a legally-binding declaration that they bought the shirts.

The group said its lawyers will take representative action on behalf of all customers affected on a no win, no fee basis and that consumers would not be charged anything for taking part in the test case.

Mr Coles said that JJB Sports had two weeks to respond and that after this time, Which? will consider filing the action at the Competition Appeals Tribunal, which could rule that the company should reimburse customers. Which? will divide any compensation between all the consumers it ends up representing in the case.

The price-fixing case marked one of the largest investigations of its sort in the country. Four of the firms involved, including JJB Sports, appealed against the level of their fines, leading to the Competition Appeal Tribunal announcing revised penalties in 2005 which totalled more than £16 million across all the companies.

JJB Sports was the only firm that continued to fight its fine, but the Court of Appeal upheld the £6.7 million fine against the Wigan-based sports clothing chain. The company said today: “JJB Sports notes the Which? announcement that it intends to take legal action against JJB Sports for the sale of replica football shirts during the alleged price fixing of 2000-2001.

“JJB Sports is in consultation with its legal advisers and will make a formal response in due course.”

Fans who think they are affected should go to the Which? website at www.which.co.uk/football-shirts.

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