CMA
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Latest property news
Turn whistleblower and we’ll reward you, competition watchdog tells estate agents
Read how the Competition and Markets Authority is targeting estate agent cartels with a new campaign offering whistle blowers rewards.
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Latest property news
Second estate agent cartel investigation gets green light from CMA
The Competition and Markets Authority says it has enough information to proceed with a full investigation into a second estate agent cartel.
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Latest property news
Letting agent spots an opportunity in town blighted by estate agency cartel
Weston Super Mare lettings agency Glentworth has opened a branch in neighbouring Burnham-on-Sea to combat "negativity" of agents discovered price fixing in the town last year.
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Latest property news
Fee-fixing estate agency directors disqualified for three years each
CMA reveals it has made two directors of Abbott & Frost in Burnham-on-Sea sign disqualification undertakings and is considering whether to add more agents in the town to the list.
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Latest property news
Be careful what you discuss with competitors down the pub, warns CMA
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has warned agents who attend informal and formal industry gatherings how careful they need to be when chatting with competitors. The hundreds, if not thousands of informal and formal property industry gatherings in pubs, hotels, golf courses and cafes up and down the country every year can lead agents to “fall foul of competition law”, the CMA warns in its latest guidance. It also highlights within the guidance somewhat ominously the combined £750,000 fine it slapped on a local trade association, three estate agents and a newspaper publisher for cartel activity in 2015. Even the most mundane conversation can cross the line and members of trade associations “must be mindful of their conduct in relation to other members of their trade association who are likely to be actual or potential competitors of theirs,” it says. “Trade associations and their members need to be alive to evolving risks of breaking competition law when discussing issues facing their industry. “Topics such as salary benchmarking or perhaps an industry ‘commercial response’ to economic or structural changes in the market may fall into this category.” Other types of conversation agents should be wary of include future pricing, discounts,…
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Agencies & People
ZPG purchase of Expert Agent to be reviewed by competition watchdog
ZPG’s purchase of software company Expert Agent earlier this month has been called in by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and is now under review, prompting shares in ZPG to drop this morning. The CMA has served an initial enforcement order to ZPG under section 72(2) of the Enterprise Act 2002. The announcement was made by ZPG this morning, saying that “having been informed of the review and the order ZPG is now engaging in a consultation with the CMA and will make a further announcement in due course”. The move has been widely anticipated within the industry after ZPG acquired Expert Agent – which trades under the name Websky Ltd – from private equity firm Metropolis. It in turn bought the company off founder Mike Griffiths in 2004. The ZPG acquisition of Expert Agent gave it a substantial slice of the UK agent software market, as it had already bought Property Software Group in April 2016. PSG at the time of acquisition by ZPG claimed to be used by over 40,000 estate agent letting agent branches across the UK, while Expert Agent is used by over 2,500 branches. The CMA has been in the warpath within the property…
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Latest property news
Four Somerset agents admit sales fee cartel and are fined £370,000
Four Somerset estate agents have admitted being involved in a price-fixing sales fee cartel in and around the seaside resort of Burnham-on-Sea and in total have been fined £372,233 by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Gary Berryman Estate Agents Ltd (and its parent company Warne Investments Limited), Abbott and Frost Limited, Greenslade Taylor Hunt and West Coast Property Services (UK) were found to have colluded together to set minimum commission rates for residential sales at 1.5%. This follows a year-long investigation by the CMA. Abbott and Frost Limited has agreed to pay £30,099, Gary Berryman Estate Agents £97,807 and West Coast Property Services £58,273. Greenslade Taylor Hunt, a partnership, received the largest fine, of £186,054. FINE REDUCTIONS All the fines involved included a 20% reduction for assisting in the investigation while Greenslade Taylor Hunt received a further 15% reduction ‘for leniency’ while West Coast Property Services’ fine also included a ‘leniency’ reduction, of 35%. The cartel was brought to the attention by a whistle-blower, Annagram Estate Agents which trades as CJ Hole locally and that, consequently, has not been fined. This is part of a strategy introduced by the CMA in 2015 to persuade errant agents to report competition law…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket is not going off, says CEO
One of last week’s noisier stories in the press and on social media was about OnTheMarket members and theo pen letter from the Competition and Markets Authority(CMA). Ian Springett (left), CEO, OnTheMarket (Agents Mutual)defended the portal’s position and its status with the CMA, asking Jungledrums to remind estate agents about their obligations under competition law when choosing online property portals to advertise their properties. “The CMA has been very clear in cautioning agents to act independently and not to collude. At OnTheMarket.com, we welcome that stance and have consistently given agents precisely the same advice to make any portal selection decisions independently. “For the record, there has been no suggestion from the CMA that OnTheMarket.com has acted improperly in any way. Indeed, in its reminder letter to agents, the CMA explicitly states that, “it has no reason to write to OnTheMarket in this connection at this time.” OnTheMarket certainly needs to defend its position, Mr Springett said, “Success attracts its detractors. The letter from the CMA triggered some predictably opportunistic attacks on us from some who are perhaps sensitive to the impact we are having by injecting competition and increasing choice in a portals market dominated by two big listed…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket battles continue
It’s been a tortuous few weeks in the property industry, fears about online agents, portal battles, tax hikes and the EU Referendum have combined to make many property people just a bit jittery. Certain people are searching for a fall guy. And they’d like it to be a big one. OnTheMarket is one of the current bookies’ favourites for the role, as disappointed members (some saying 200 disappointed members) attempt to get out of their contracts without paying their fees. As if an internal ruck isn’t enough, coincidentally (or perhaps not) the Competition & Markets Authority, published a statement warning online property portals which prevent those listing homes on them from also listing on rival sites that they may be breaching competition law. One of the founding principles behind it was that any agent wishing to list properties on OnTheMarket would have to choose between either one of its rivals – meaning either Zoopla or Rightmove would lose out. Ann Pope (left) Senior Director, Antitrust, at the Competition and Markets Authority who has a holy name and a worrying title, wrote in an Open Letter to all estate agents that “when an estate agent makes a commercial decision about its…
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Features
Closing the door on anti-competitive agreements
“Restricting where and how estate and lettings agents can advertise their fees could be breaking the law,” says the CMA.
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