Trinity Mirror Southern

Trinity Mirror Southern published local newspapers. Estate agents buy pages in those papers to show houses. A seller choosing an agent looks at those ads. If the ads can state a commission, the seller can compare fees without phoning every office. If the ads cannot state a fee, the paper still looks full and the price stays hidden.

In the Three Counties matter, the agents' association had a rule against advertising fees and discounts. The publisher was involved in that restriction, so the ban was not only a private membership rule. It showed up in the advertising columns. The CMA fined the case. Trinity Mirror Southern is the publisher id, not an estate agent.

No fine amount is stated for the publisher or for the case. The library status is fined. A newspaper that accepts a collective limit on price advertising is part of the agreement, even though it does not itself sell houses.

Local property ads are the medium. The restrained message is the agent's fee.

The association wrote the rule. The publisher's involvement is what made the rule the practice in the paper.

This id is the publisher. Member agents are separate companies in the same case.

A seller scanning the local paper for a cheaper agent could not learn the commission from the ad.

Agents who wanted to publish a discount lost the main local advertising vehicle for that message.