Competition record
West Coast Property
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
West Coast Property is a Burnham-on-Sea estate agent in the CMA cartel that fixed a 1.5 percent minimum commission. The 2017 fines for that local cartel were about £370,000.
Overview
West Coast Property is one of the estate agents in Burnham-on-Sea, the Somerset coastal town in the CMA's 2017 fee case. In a town that size, sellers know the offices by name. West Coast Property's competitors were the other agents on that short list, including the firm filed here as Somerset Estate Agents. The service is a sale instruction priced as a percentage of the house.
The agents agreed they would not go below 1.5 percent. A minimum is easy to describe and easy to police in a small town, because each office can see what the others quote. The CMA fined the cartel in 2017. About £370,000 is the total. One firm received immunity. This profile leaves that firm unnamed.
Library status is fined. The homeowner who listed with West Coast Property while the floor held was paying a commission the local rivals had agreed to protect.
Competition footprint
The 1.5 percent minimum is the price term, applied to traditional residential sales in Burnham-on-Sea.
West Coast Property is a participating local agent, one office in a town-sized market.
About £370,000 is the published total for the cartel. Immunity was granted to one firm the profile leaves unnamed.
Consumer & business angle
Sellers in Burnham-on-Sea had a handful of real choices, and the floor applied to that handful.
A lower commission from West Coast Property was the competitive offer the agreement was there to stop.
What to watch
- Local instruction fees in Burnham-on-Sea, where 1.5 percent was the agreed floor in 2014 and the fines arrived in 2017.
- CMA accounts of the town cartel that list West Coast Property among the agents.
Markets
residential estate agency · Burnham-on-Sea home sales · local professional services · small business cartels
Also known as: west coast property, west coast property services