Rightmove accused of ‘bullying’ estate agents in £1.5bn legal battle

Property giant Rightmove has been accused of “bullying” its members into making payments, as hundreds of estate agents support a £1.5bn legal claim against the firm.

The FTSE 100 company has been accused of charging excessive and unfair fees to the estate agents and new home developers that used its property listing portal as part of the suit.

More than 250 estate agents have put their weight behind the claim, which has been brought against Rightmove by Jeremy Newman, a former panel member of the UK’s competition watchdog.

Newman alleges the property portal firm abused its dominant position in the market by charging unfairly high fees and pressuring its members into making payments.

He said: “Filing this claim today advances the route to meaningful compensation for those businesses who have had very little choice but to absorb excessive fee increases for many years.”

One estate agent, based in the East Midlands, claims Rightmove “bullies clients into making payments, with the threat of making houses invisible”.

A family estate agency, based in London, said: “I have just had to close my business, and it was down in no small part to their excessive fees.”

Rightmove has denied the allegations and said it will “vigorously” defend itself in court.

Claim form officially filed to the Tribunal 

Rightmove was served a pre-action letter back in November outlining the allegations against the property giant. 

But the claim form was filed on Wednesday to the specialist judicial body, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), by the claimant law firm Scott+Scott.

The CAT is the only unit of the English court unit that allows the ‘opt-out’ regime after legislation was brought in 2015. An opt-out class action lawsuit is a type of collective legal claim where all ‘alleged victims’ are automatically included in the lawsuit.

The Tribunal has been known for its ‘low bar’ when certifying a case. Following the 2015 legislation, there was a flurry of cases filed to the CAT, mostly targeting tech firm giants. 

The legal action against Rightmove is led by former Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) panel member and former managing partner of BDO, Jeremy Newman, and is backed by litigation funder Innsworth Capital. 

Back in November, Innsworth Capital was hit with a hefty costs bill after it failed to challenge to Walter Merricks’ £200m settlement with Mastercard. 

Rightmove posted growing profit in February – up 12 per cent to £290m – as it doubled down on divisive plans to roll out AI across its search function and launch an app in ChatGPT.

The property firm’s share price was up one per cent on Wednesday despite the filing, leaving the stock down 15 per cent this year, at 433p.

A spokesperson for Rightmove said: “Rightmove is confident in the value we provide to our partners and consumers, who are at the core of our   business solutions and digital platform.

“Our platform continues to provide a growing range of constantly evolving products and features which facilitate market transparency, liquidity and confidence. This claim is without merit, and we will defend it vigorously.”