Second case of illegal price-fixing by estate agents since 2015: this time in Somerset

Abbott and Frost Limited, Gary Berryman Estate Agents Ltd (and its parent company Warne Investments Limited), Greenslade Taylor Hunt and West Coast Property Services (UK) Limited all admitted breaking competition law by taking part in a price-fixing cartel in the Burnham-on-Sea area.

They colluded to set minimum commission rates for residential property sales at 1.5%, with a view to denying local home-owners selling their property the chance of securing a better deal.

Stephen Blake, Senior Director, Cartel Enforcement said, “Moving home is expensive and this shouldn’t be made worse by estate agents conspiring to deny their customers the best possible deal, by agreeing not to compete on fees.

“Price-fixing cheats customers, and we are committed to tackling it regardless of the size of the businesses involved. We have taken action against estate agents before, and will do so again if firms break the law.”

The businesses involved agreed to settle with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after a year-long investigation. Another company, Annagram Estate Agents Limited (trading as ‘C J Hole’), will not be fined – as long as it continues to cooperate – as it was the first company to confess its participation in the cartel. This policy is designed to encourage companies to self-report the wrongdoing and so aid the CMA in robustly enforcing the law.

This is the second case brought by the CMA against estate agents in recent years. The previous case saw members of the Three Counties Estate Agent Association fined £735,000 in 2015, and resulted in the CMA launching a campaign designed to improve understanding of the law within that sector, and so compliance with it.

It was this campaign that resulted in the current case being brought to the CMA’s attention.