Competition & Authority
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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 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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