London modeling agencies accused of price fixing

London's top modeling agencies have been accused of colluding together and driving up the rates of their models.

An investigation led by the Mail on Sunday found that agencies including Storm, Models 1 and Premier Model Management are working together as a secret cartel to drive up fees for appearances.

Investigators raided the agencies and seized computers and documents from their offices, which include representation for Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Yasmin Le Bon, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford.

Such models command fees of thousands of pounds a day for shoots, and the agencies top bosses have been questioned by investigators at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about fixing the prices they charge to big brands and retailers for models.

Retailers are desperate to drive down their shooting costs

Big name high street retailers are keen to drive the price of modelling fees down as in the new era of online shopping and social media they have to shoot more clothes from every angle for their websites, rather than just a simple garment shot.

The investigation began at the end of March, with unannounced raids on the agencies’ London offices and has continued in the past few months with ‘information gathering, including issuance of formal or informal information requests and parties’ responses’, according to the CMA website.

The CMA will decide whether either the Competition Act 1998 or Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union have been broken. If investigators find the agencies breached competition laws they could face fines of up to ten per cent of their worldwide turnover.

According to the CMA’s website, the ‘case is at an early stage and no assumption should be made that there has been an infringement of competition law’. A decision to proceed or close the investigation will be made in October.

The Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source: "It’s a market and they set their own prices and, while there may be industry standards, the allegation is that the agencies are meeting as a cartel to agree prices."

“They bitterly resent the retailers trying to force down their prices and are convinced one or more big retailers lodged a complaint with the CMA.”

image:Naomi Cambell, Kate Moss