Waterfords

Waterfords is a local estate agent in the Three Counties case. It instructs sellers, markets houses, and charges a commission. In a local market the way an agent wins a seller who is price-sensitive is to say, in public, that the fee is lower than the office across the street. The local paper is where that claim would have run.

The Three Counties Estate Agents Association restricted fee advertising, and a local newspaper was part of carrying that restriction. Waterfords is one of the member agents the library names. Under the rule, Waterfords could not use the paper to publish its commission or a discount. Rival agents were under the same limit, so none of them could break ranks in print.

The library status is fined. No Waterfords fine is stated, and no case total is stated. The seller's loss is information. The percentage existed. The ad was not allowed to show it.

Waterfords is a member agent, downstream of an association rule and a newspaper practice.

The restrained conduct is advertising the fee, not a separate agreement on the fee amount itself.

Hiding commissions in the local paper protected agents who did not want to compete on the percentage.

A seller who might have chosen Waterfords because of a lower fee had to discover that fee by asking, while every other ad was equally silent.

Waterfords itself gave up a public price message, which is the tool a keener agent uses to take listings.