Shock Absorber sports bra is one of the leading brands of sports bra in the UK. Retired professional Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova was the celebrity chosen to endorse the product in 2003. She modeled the sports bra with the tagline "Only the ball should bounce." If you are a woman, you would really be curious to try it.

The product became a hit instantly, but it looks like British women may have been charged too much for the said sports bra.

The Britain's trade supervisory body has evidence that between 2008 and 2011, the maker of the underwear, DB Apparel UK, and three of the country's major department stores, Debenhams, House of Fraser and John Lewis teamed up to fix the price range of the Shock Absorbers sports bra on nine separate instances.

It seems that, DB Apparel supposedly instructed its merchants how much they could sell the sports bra for and even told them when to increase the prices.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is now investigating the said incident. "We take the allegations of price fixing very seriously," said OFT Senior Director Ann Pope. "The maintenance of resale price limits the competition between merchants, and as a result, the customers tend to pay more," she added.

The suggested retail price for the Shock Absorber sports bra should range from £25 to £38. Debenhams now sells the product offering a discount ranging from 20% to 30%, as posted on its Web site. House of Fraser has prices ranging from as low as £10.40 to £29.60, also in accordance to the information posted on its Web site. John Lewis puts the product up for sale for the price of £18 to £38, offering discounts too.

If they are found accountable for such price-fixing, Debenhams, House of Fraser and John Lewis could be facing fines of more than £1 billion.