Hamilton real estate agencies to pay $4 million for price fixing

The Court’s penalty judgment brings an end to proceedings the Commission first filed in December 2015 ( 907 KB, PDF ) the Commission’s claims against Lodge and Monarch and their directors. Justice Jagose held that there was an arrangement or understanding between the respondents, to which they gave effect, but that it did not have the purpose or effect of fixing, controlling, or maintaining the price for Trade Me listings services.

The Commission’s appeal against that decision was upheld in November 2018. The Court of Appeal held that the agreement fixed prices because consumers “lost the opportunity to be offered a price which had been set… in response to working competitive market forces”.

Lodge, Monarch and their directors then appealed to the Supreme Court which subsequently upheld the Appeal Court’s judgment. 

Thirteen companies and three individuals have been ordered to pay a total of nearly $23 million dollars in penalties related to this case:

• Hamilton real estate agency Online Realty Limited (trading under the Ray White banner) penalty of $1.05 million (August 2017)
• Property Brokers Limited and its director Tim Mordaunt total penalties of $1.5 million (April 2017)
• Hamilton real estate agency Lugton’s Limited penalty of $1 million (December 2016)
• Head offices of Barfoot & Thompson, Harcourts, LJ Hooker and Ray White total penalties of $9.825 million (December 2016)
• Manawatu 1994 Limited (trading under the LJ Hooker banner) penalty of $1.25 million (November 2016)
• Bayleys Corporation Limited and Hamilton-based Success Realty Limited total penalties of $2.2 million and $900,000, respectively (July 2016)
• Unique Realty Limited penalty of $1.25 million (May 2016).
• Lodge Realty and Monarch Realty total penalties of $2.1 million and $1.9 million, respectively (September 2020)