Competition record
Abbott and Frost
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
Abbott and Frost is a high-street estate agency in the Somerset town of Burnham-on-Sea. The CMA's 2017 case records it among six local agents who agreed a 1.5% minimum sales commission.
Overview
Abbott and Frost sells and lets homes in Burnham-on-Sea, a small seaside town where a short list of high-street agents handles most instructions. A seller there usually walks the same few shopfronts and asks each one what the fee will be.
The Competition and Markets Authority found that six of those agents agreed, starting in 2014, not to go below a 1.5% commission on traditional residential sales. The floor was aimed at the fees homeowners pay to get a house sold.
In 2017 five firms were fined about £370,000 in total, and one firm received immunity. This profile does not identify which firm received immunity.
Competition footprint
The product is the commission on a local house sale, not a national portal fee.
A minimum commission stops a seller from playing one Burnham agent off against another.
The case is closed with fines and one immunity grant, and the immune firm is not named here.
Consumer & business angle
Home sellers in Burnham-on-Sea paid the commission the agents had floored.
Other local agents were the competitors in the same agreement.
What to watch
- How the CMA's write-up of the Burnham fee floor is used in later estate-agency compliance.
- Any private claim by a seller who listed during the agreement, which this library does not record as filed.
Markets
residential estate agency · Burnham-on-Sea property sales · local professional services · small business cartels
Also known as: abbott and frost, abbott & frost