RE/MAX takes GetAgent to task over misleading advertising and wins

Estate agency referral site GetAgent.co.uk has had its knuckles rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after RE/MAX Property estate agents complained to the regulator that its marketing was misleading.

Towards the end of June this year GetAgent’s homepage stated: “Find the best Estate Agent for you. See which agents will do the best job of selling your home, based on past performance.” While text underneath said: “Impartial recommendations.”

PERFORMANCE DATA

And text further down the page said: “Independent: The agents listed are based on performance data from the Land Registry. Agents don’t pay to appear.”

Another web page included a shortlist of recommended agents after inputting an address. The first three listed agents included information on the average sale time; the asking price change; the fee quote and the services the agency offered.

But RE/MAX Property argued that the top three search results on the comparison site’s shortlisted agents page were obviously identifiable as marketing communications and blasted GetAgent for claiming “impartial recommendations” and “agents don’t pay to appear” were misleading and could be substantiated.

But despite a flurry of arguments put forward by GetAgent that it could back up the claims in a lengthy ruling the ASA upheld both complaints for breaching the Code.

MUST NOT APPEAR

The ASA says: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told GetAgent to ensure that their future ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications and that the commercial intent was made clear.

“We also told them to not to claim that they offered impartial recommendations or that agents did not pay to appear if that was not the case.”

IMPROVE TRANSPARENCY

Colby Short, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of GetAgent.co.uk, told The Neg: “GetAgent welcomes the ASA’s help in ensuring we further improve the transparency of our service and we are actively working to refine our messaging for better alignment with users expectations.

“We pride ourselves on offering a comprehensive, unbiased view of estate agent performance based on objective metrics.

And he says: “We appreciate the ASA’s acknowledgment that GetAgent showcases the best-performing agents on our shortlist, regardless of whether they work with us or not.

“Our commitment to objectivity has resulted in delivering over 150,000 referrals to more than 7,500 agents this year.

“We value the ASA’s guidance on how we can continue assisting undecided vendors in finding the best estate agents.”

Read the full ruling HERE.