A year later, the fair trade office accused the houses of John Lewis, Debenham and Fraser of manipulating the price of Britain\'s most popular sports bra --
A long investigation
The price of the Shock Absorber bra can be up to £ 40, provided by DB Apparel UK in nine separate agreements with department stores between 2008 and 2011 to determine the minimum price, according to the regular.
Sun European Partners, the parent private equity group of DB Apparel, has been understood by regulators to investigate its two other businesses Dreams and SCS due to its sales strategy.
Ann Pope, senior director of OFT, said: \"We accept the charge of price
Serious repair.
Resale price maintenance limits competition among retailers and can lead consumers to pay higher prices.
\"Retailers may be fined up to ten per cent of global turnover, or John Lewis is fined up to £ 378, debenhams £ 222 and Fraser House £ 110.
During the time the allegations were reported, DB\'s sports bra took up 15 percentage points in the market.
It also sells Wonderbra and Playtex brands in Europe.
DB was acquired by Sun in 2006 and sold last year, but failed to attract any interest.
The allegations were denied by all four companies.
John Lewis said: \"We have been working hard to operate within the law and comply with the regulations.
We are fully cooperative.
Work with OFT and will respond in due course.
Debenhams said it \"objected to these interim findings from OFT \".
Fraser House said: \"We believe we have been operating within all laws and regulations and are very supportive of any initiative to ensure that pricing policies are fair to our customers.
DB Apparel said: \"Since the beginning of this process, we have been transparent to the British authorities and will continue to vigorously defend ourselves in this investigation.