Rightmove has moved to defend its position after being hit with a £1.5bn lawsuit alleging it charged estate agents “unfair” fees – claims that have already knocked around £300m off the company’s market value.
The class action, led by accountant Jeremy Newman on behalf of potentially hundreds of estate agents, alleges the property portal exploited its dominant position in the market. A formal letter of claim has been issued, seeking close to £1.5bn in damages.
The legal action, which centres on Rightmove’s pricing model and its leading position in the property portal market, has raised fresh questions about the cost of listings for agents and the level of competition in the sector.
The impact was quickly reflected in the company’s valuation, with shares falling after news of the claim broke, wiping almost £300m off its market value. Investors appear concerned about the potential financial and reputational risks, as well as the broader implications for Rightmove’s long-established business model.
In response, Rightmove said it strongly rejects the allegations and intends to defend the case, maintaining that it delivers value to agents through its platform and reach.
Rightmove issued the following statement: “Further to our announcement of 13 November 2025, Rightmove confirms that it is aware of reports that an application to commence collective proceedings against Rightmove has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
“Rightmove is confident in the value we provide to our partners and consumers, who are at the core of our business solutions and digital platform.
“As one of the most efficient parts of the UK housing market, we help people across the UK to move home by bringing buyers, sellers, renters, landlords and agents together. Our platform continues to provide a growing range of constantly evolving products and features which facilitate market transparency, liquidity and confidence. This claim is without merit, and we will defend it vigorously.”
With more than 250 estate agencies from across the UK so far expressing an interest in and support for the claim against Rightmove since it was first announced in November 2025, Newman, leading the case against Rightmove, said he was extremely encouraged by the response from agents.
He commented: “The stories shared by businesses, both small and large, have confirmed long-held concerns in the market about Rightmove’s conduct.
“Filing this claim advances the route to meaningful compensation for those businesses who have had very little choice but to absorb excessive fee increases for many years.”
The claim is fully funded by Innsworth Capital, with legal support from Scott+Scott UK LLP and independent economic analysis by Kairos Economics.
James Hain-Cole, partner at Scott+Scott, commented: “For years, thousands of businesses have been captive customers of Rightmove, which faces no effective competition. It’s therefore been allowed to financially squeeze its subscribers by consistently and materially raising prices without proper justification or explanation. We’re pleased to have now filed this important legal action and to be supporting Jeremy in seeking redress for thousands of British businesses.”
EYE NEWSLASH: Rightmove faces £1bn legal action over ‘excessive’ fees
Could the Murdochs be behind this somewhere? The RM share price is steadily being driven down making it a very attractive price for a second attempt to buy it. Thoughts????
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Pure & simple facts are RM costs have always been excessive. Tell me a business or industry where the profit margin is c. 60 – 70% as per RM.
What are RM staff & business costs where most of the “work” compiled via the internet, transacted through the ether & algorithms etc as opposed to actual “hard graft”.
They have milked it for years as gullible & scared agents fearful of not being “in the club”.
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“Unfair and excessive” are subjective opinion.
Rightmove don’t tell agents how to price their business model – perhaps the same should apply to agencies?
If you don’t like the fees, don’t use them. In fact, I hope you don’t because paying for a rented audience is not a strategy that will move you forward. Build a marketing asset that you own, not a liability over which you have little control.
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Chris, with respect, that feels a bit dismissive.
The lawyers behind this are prepared to spend millions pursuing it. They won’t be doing that based on your opinion, they’ll have assessed it properly and clearly believe there’s a strong case.
You might disagree, but it’s unlikely any of us have reviewed it in more depth than the legal teams funding and running the claim against Rightmove.
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I am not a fan of Rightmove – one of the reasons I stopped being an agent was hearing just once too often things like:
“I don’t care which agent I use, you’re all on Rightmove, so it’s just the fee that matters”, or
“Is that Rightmove? Can I book a viewing on…”, or
“No, I don’t want to register, you’ll put it on Rightmove…”
(and yes, I know that there are ways to deal with all three, but after 15 years of that nonsense, I got bored)
Rightmove have managed to get themselves into a quasi-monopoly situation – they have been and still are very clever at running their business.
And us normal, high-street estate agents, because it looked good to start off with and was cheaper than the local newspaper, we all went along with it, thinking it was going to be BRILLIANT for business.
And it was, until we were all hooked, and then they started to squeeze us for money.
I remember being an agent back in 2000 when Rightmove was launched by “the big 4” : Connells, Countrywide, Royal and Sun Alliance, and Halifax.
The first acquired both the second and the third, and the fourth was sold to LSL for £1 in 2009.
From Companies House data, the combined value of these four businesses (as they are owned today, with the debt load they carry) appears to stand at minus £49million.
For Rightmove’s results (if you can be bothered) you can download their annual report from their corporate website. I was going to include the link but hyperlinks in PIE comments are banned.
Rightmove’s most recent accounts show revenue of £425.1m with an operating profit of £297.9m and they paid out £219.7m in dividends. That is FANTASTIC business, if you can do it.
And all built on the backs of hard working high-street agents.
In 2025, Rightmove reports that they had 19,272 paying advertiser clients (i.e. estate agents) which means that on average each advertiser (i.e. each one of you) paid out just under £11,400 to A N Other random investors for absolutely NOTHING.
When you consider that some advertiser clients pay “corporate rate” rather than full rate, that means that small high street agents are paying out even more to somebody for nothing.
Are your gears grinding yet?
And, because there are “also ran” competitors who just about manage to scrape through, Rightmove get away with being a quasi-monopoly rather than a full blown monopoly that would have to behave themselves.
You may wish to look up the definition of “economic rent” on Wikipedia.
And it’s all of our own making 🙁
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Is there not a story in whoever made the decision at RM to reject the £6.2 Billion offer from REA in Sept 2024. The market cap of RM is now almost half of this at £3.2b? Who were the individuals/institutions who made this decision to class the REA offer as ‘undervalued’ do we not have a story of business decision making here?
The RM share price hasn’t really ‘tumbled’ on this anti-competitive annoucement – in the context it has been in freefall for about 4 months. It was dressed up as a lack of investment in AI but I think the real reason is a lot of agents are potentially going to struggle to be in business in the next 12-24 months with all the changes going on in the market/the world.
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In the ever‑changing world of real estate shaped by AI‑driven portals, hybrid agents, and self‑employed agents the way people sell and rent property is evolving rapidly. I remember when Rightmove was considering shifting its model to allow private sellers and private landlords to advertise directly on the platform, much like AutoTrader does. If Rightmove were to revisit that idea today, it could completely disrupt the industry, with traditional high‑street estate agents likely to suffer the most.
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All that is needed is a fair pricing policy across the board, not one group of agents subsidising the other
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100%
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