Competition record
Michael Hardy
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
Michael Hardy is a Berkshire estate agent the CMA fined for coordinating sales commissions with other local agents. Individual fines, and the name of any firm that confessed, are left out of this profile.
Overview
Michael Hardy is a high-street estate agent in Berkshire. The product is a sales instruction: the agent markets a house and takes a commission, usually a percentage of the price, if it sells. Sellers phone more than one agent because that percentage is negotiable when the agents are actually competing.
The CMA found that Michael Hardy and other Berkshire agents coordinated those commissions. A minimum fee among local rivals is price fixing, including when the firms are small and the market is a few towns. The library status is fined.
This profile does not divide the penalty among Michael Hardy, Prospect Estate Agency, Richard Worth, Romans, or any other firm, and it does not name a confessor. The point for a seller is simpler. The percentage on the instruction letter was not the product of a private quote.
Competition footprint
Residential sale commission is the price of the agency service, charged as a cut of the house price.
Coordination among Berkshire agents replaced a set of independent quotes with a shared floor.
The CMA case treats a local professional service the same way it treats a larger cartel: rivals may not agree the fee.
Consumer & business angle
A Berkshire seller comparing three agents should have heard three different percentages. Coordination makes those quotes echo each other.
The cash difference is the gap between the agreed floor and the fee a hungry agent would have accepted to win the instruction.
What to watch
- How the CMA still uses this Berkshire decision in talks with high-street agents.
- Agency terms in the same towns, where a quoted minimum can be a habit left over from the cartel years.
Markets
residential estate agency · Berkshire home sales · local professional services · small business cartels
Also known as: michael hardy and company, michael hardy estate agents