Agents’ Mutual is to go after costs after the Competition Appeal Tribunal today issued a judgement in favour of it.
Ian Springett, chief executive of OnTheMarket, told EYE: “The Competition Appeal Tribunal has now issued judgment in favour of Agents’ Mutual in relation to our legal proceedings against Gascoigne Halman.
“We are pleased that the Tribunal has confirmed the position maintained consistently by our Board that Agents’ Mutual’s strategy for entry to the portals market has been pro-competitive both in object and effect and that the business is operating within the law. The Tribunal has dismissed the challenge from Gascoigne Halman that Agents’ Mutual and its Members have behaved illegally or anti-competitively.
“All of the key terms of our listing agreements with agents and our membership eligibility rules have been upheld.
“The proceedings before the Tribunal have been running since July last year with the trial completing in February.
“The manner in which our opponents conducted the case has caused us to divert considerable resources and management time, as was presumably intended by those, including Zoopla, who funded it.
“The full judgment is lengthy and complex but its conclusions are clear. We will now work with our legal team to recover costs and losses we have incurred as well as deposit monies lodged by us in Court to cover the position had the competition law case been lost.
“A residual, non-competition law element of the case against Gascoigne Halman is still to be completed.
“In the immediate term, we will be ramping up our marketing activity to restore the strong growth in consumer traffic and leads OnTheMarket.com was delivering over its first two years of operations.
“Looking further ahead, the board has been working over the last few months on substantial new plans which will support the further development of OnTheMarket.
“These plans are well advanced but could not be finalised pending the outcome of the litigation. We will shortly be ready to share them with our member firms. Our aim is to gain members’ support for the new plans and be in a position to implement them from the end of August.
“The two largest incumbent portals continue to use agents’ hard-won property listings and their ever-increasing fees to generate super profits for their shareholders at the expense of their agent customers and they are defending their duopoly position vigorously.
“However, with an excellent online platform, the sustained support of thousands of high quality agents and a highly experienced team, OnTheMarket.com is well positioned to create a genuine alternative market-leading portal for agents and consumers alike.”
I hope the plans being put forward In August will encourage as many new eligible agents to join as possible. More property listings means more traffic. More traffic means more leads for everyone!
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Beat rightmove/zoopla and they open the doors to private listings. Bye bye Estate Agents! Never gonna beat em. Depressing though that sounds, I suspect that will be the reality.
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No business model for Private Listings Naysayer.
Do the maths……. £750 minimum per office every month every agent in the land… regardless of property selling Constant cash cow.
How many new listings EVERY month would RM or Z need to match that income, every month!
Plus man power…… 10,000 agency offices, turns to say 1million very needy vendors who now expect RM to answer direct to their issues…..
RM bottom line then also jumps through the roof, plus dealing with the happy joe public first hand!!! ie they make so much money as we are currently unpaid staff who look after their virtual private listings.
and then finally go private, and surely every agent would take stock off Rightmove within 24 hours, catapulting OTM to first for stock levels and Rightmove would take at least a month to get the message out there
PLUS “one other finally” what vendor who has been on Rightmove for 3 months unsold will then list direct with the site which has not yet sold it anyway! Easy sell against for agents, who explain RM have already failed to help us sell it and you have paid em nothing so why now pay them when they (RM) only have about 100 houses listed. (That bit makes sense to me)
PS – Who is my new OTM rep?
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Exactly. If all agents leave to go to OTM, RM won’t have those subscriptions, so will need to get listings somehow.
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“Exactly” what Naysay? The scenario of all agents walking will only happen if RM announce DIY sales.
How an earth do you think they would then manage to get as many vendors to instantly cough up EVERY month they do not sell…. RM model and success is being able to collect the rolling revenue.
If they could make more money with private listings, do you really think the board and shareholders would be saying, “no, keep making less with the current business model”
RM will do what makes them the most money and that is why they will not touch private. Again if all vendors would go with RM for a one off listing fee, most and I am talking 70% of the market would now be with PB on £895 getting more than they would for a £495 fee with RM to just have pictures online.
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Finally some fighting words from Ian.
We need more of this, hopefully he has found his MOJO like Corbyn (although i cannot stand him and his politics).
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Agreed on fighting words.
Unfortunately unlike Corby. Ian is all gas and air. No substance. When is the last time he had any positive news on any performance figures. Over a year now. That only stating that year on year growth I seem to recall. Says it all really.
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Agents must realise that if we all went to OTM we could save a fortune. This is good news! Don’t forget OTM are on our side. RM and Z are on their share holders side.
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Perhaps you shouldn’t join any portal or do any advertising. That will save you even more…
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I hope the irony of this comment with you username isn’t lost on you
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Congratulations Ian.
Hopefully all agents who have thus far ignored OTM will join and give this mutual the backing it deserves and give the other bullies a run for their money. For far too long we have been overcharged by right move and Zoopla and this judgement now heralds the time for change. GIVE OTM your backing !!
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Just a quick question.
How much less effort goes into selling a £150k house in the north compared to say £500k in the south???
The agent fee on each is what?
Overcharging you say, I suggest the high street agent industry looks in the mirror first. There is a very good reason online agents are becoming so popular. Agents well overcharging.
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I cannot answer your question, but with an average fee of 1.1% against the higher percentage and advertising costs that we understand you get in the North, coupled with significantly higher running costs down south, I cannot see the argument. Would it surprise you to know that if we get 15% profit we are doing well ! …….Last year it was two – 2% !!!
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As Ive posted on the other thread that I think costs of this loss for GH, C & Z could be huge.
I know for a fact that Zoopla reps were encouraging firms to bail from OTM on the basis that they were convinced this case would be won, so what I think could be interesting here is that actually the tables have turned and what was an unfair competition claim by Gascoigne Halman or Connells or indeed underwritten as many of us suspect by Zoopla, will in fact now be levied at them in exactly the same way.
What we have seen demonstrated here, in my opinion from the likes of Zoopla etc, does demonstrate exclusionary practices and anti competition.
The only question in my mind is that this is not a case that can be won in a few months, so on it rolls. I do think however that legal counsel for the firms involved will be advising them that damages could indeed be substantial, so they will be suggesting they think about what will they offer to settle any subsequent counter action.
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A portal which basically provides nothing, has little staff, virtual zero impactful advertising and sales reps which refuse to even answer share holders / members questions.
Initially it seemed a good idea, but it’s a complete flop. Blagging from Mr S won’t change that. Only keep his big pay packet coming a little longer. While the members suffer from near zero leads (Still a lot of nieve agents out there. A real shame for the industry).
Rightmove prices come down yet??? I didn’t think so. Online agents suffering… Bigger than ever I hear. Oh….. Funny that. Nice distraction OTM. Well played RM.
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Leave RM & ZPG for OTM? Not on your nelly- not until they can demonstarte a platform that delivers something spectaular and unique for the consumer- don’t wow me, wow them. I don’t mind paying for quality- it’s the same thng I expect of my clients. Is it me or was this a great opportunity to come out and say ‘we’ve won- but we’re not going to pursue costs to prove we are here for agents’. Don’t be vague and say ‘we have substantial new plans’ blow us away with what they are- any tech takes time to develop so anything worth replicating will be way behind the curve anyway.
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WELL DONE OTM….They have done well to come out fighting!
Whilst they haven’t stopped Rightmoves increases – I have got a brilliant deal with Zoopla – no rate increase for 2 years plus!!!!
Just cant believe agents have listened to their Zoopla reps RE – you can break your contract, they are anti competitive, they wont win the court case blah blah blah
Let’s see what the board have up their sleeves – more importantly will they deliver!!!!
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RM. Z, OTM or any other portal are basically the same to the end user. The public don’t give a stuff which one they search as long as it has the property they want. They would like a one stop shop but go to the one the locals agents are promoting and advertising on. RM are number 1 only because they started first over a decade ago and was really the only option provided to agents. Z came along later and was a joke for a long time, very little support and even poorer marketing. It was only when OTM came along did Z wake up to the threat and spend mega amount on branding, marketing etc so much so they tried to help OTM go under and FAILED. OTM offers agents a web portal where they are not held to ransom and a fair amount of protection for their industry, while the other two offer no assurance’s and in RM case a big financial drain. If agents were to stop using any portal and move to another and promote that portal as they do with the likes of current status quo, the public would just follow. THEY are not bothered, the only ones that are the other portals and agents who can’t see the light! Since when does a business (high street agent) promote another company that threatens to put them out of business …. are you mad? OTM is still only a couple of years old and taken more than its fair share of flack from what are its competitors and agents who think it was going to be easy and do their job for them. No web portal does your job for you, it is nothing more than an electronic newspaper to show properties, not hinder your operations with false valuations tools, sales history which often have no relevance. Think what the customer wants …. pictures and details of a property to buy, not hit with third party advertising and gimmicks making the process a bind, time consuming and switch off. Advertising should be the KISS principle, the hook for the agent to then reel in the fish, if they haven’t fallen asleep.
There certainly are some very unhappy people today, all convinced it was the end for OTM, oh dear, no cartel, not illegal …. blimey they are still there as a competitor with a better package.
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