Greenslade Taylor Hunt, Abbott and Frost Limited, Gary Berryman Estate Agents and West Coast Property Services fined £372,000 for price fixing in Burnham-on-Sea

Greenslade Taylor Hunt (GTH), Abbott and Frost Limited, Gary Berryman Estate Agents Ltd and its parent company Warne Investments Limited, and West Coast Property Services, were fined a total of £372,233 for colluding to set a minimum commission rate of 1.5 per cent for properties in the Burnham-on-Sea area.

The four companies all admitted to price fixing.

The fines were handed out today by the CMA, as the firms denied local home-owners a better deal by setting the fixed commission rates for residential properties.

GTH was fined a total of £186,054, including a 20 per cent reduction for settlement, and a reduction of 35 per cent for leniency.

Gary Berryman Estate Agents, and its parent company Warne Investments Limited, have been fined a total of £97,807, including a reduction of 20 per cent for settlement.

West Coast Property Services UK has been fined £58,273, including a 20 per cent reduction for settlement and 35 per cent for leniency.

Abbott and Frost Limited was fined £30,099, which includes a reduction of 20 per cent for settlement and for agreeing to follow a new streamlined procedure for the remainder of the case.

Stephen Blake, senior director for cartel enforcement at the CMA, 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 wrong-doing 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, and we encourage others with evidence of competition law being broken to report their concerns to the CMA.

The CMA is also continuing to investigate the conduct of a further estate agent, Saxons PS Limited, which is not a party to today’s settlement.

Penalties under the Competition Act become payable only after the CMA has issued a formal infringement decision setting out the CMA’s findings in full, together with the basis for the calculation of the fines.

The next procedural step is the issue of a formal statement of objections, which is expected shortly.

Charles Clark, chairman of Greenslade Taylor Hunt, said: "Along with three other Burnham-on-Sea estate agencies I can confirm that GTH has been fined by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for breaking competition law relating to activities in 2014 and early 2015 in the Burnham-on-Sea area.

"GTH has co-operated with the CMA in its investigations, and this is reflected in the leniency applied.

"Any discussion of commission rates, however informal, between competing businesses, is not permissible and the firm condemns such behaviour in the strongest terms.

"Activity of this nature is a breach of GTH’s high ethical standards and is entirely inconsistent with the company’s long established values.

"We profoundly regret what occurred at Burnham-on-Sea.

"As soon as the CMA raised concerns we undertook a thorough investigation of all offices and departments.

"We are entirely satisfied that this issue resulted from the wholly misguided and inappropriate actions of one GTH Partner, acting entirely alone, at one branch of our group and that no other office or department was involved in any way whatsoever.

"The Partner’s actions at Burnham-on-Sea were undertaken with neither the consent or knowledge of other GTH Partners or staff at any other office in our organisation.
"The Partner concerned recognises that his actions were a gross misjudgement.

"He has apologised to his colleagues at Burnham on Sea and to the Partners and staff throughout the firm for letting GTH and its clients and partners down in this manner.

"He is completely mortified, recognises his error and regrets his involvement in every way.

"Discussions are continuing as to the individual’s future responsibilities within the firm.

"GTH undertakes regular and full reviews of internal compliance procedures. Additional measures have been put in place to ensure that such activity cannot reoccur and that we continue to meet the high professional standards that we set."

Mike Martin, from Gary Berryman's Estate Agents, said: "Berryman's fully co-operated with the CMA investigation relating to matters arising some three years ago.

"These issues occured entirely outside company policy.

"Since that time, full and thorough compliance training has been instigated and the company now fully complies with all competition law in the UK and the EU."