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The

National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC)

has sanctioned

Idealista

,

Remax

,

Inmovilla

,

Look & Find

,

Witei

and

Anaconda

with the payment of 1.25 million euros

for having carried out a series of agreements to fix prices and exchange information in the real estate brokerage market.

The highest penalty corresponds to Idealista, which will have to face the payment of 730,000 euros, followed by Remax (375,720 euros), Inmovilla (83,149), Look & Find (31,486), Witei (18,925) and Anaconda (1,749), according to the CNMC.

In the case of Witei, which has collaborated through the leniency program, its sanction has been reduced by 45%.

Although there is no administrative appeal against this resolution, a contentious-administrative appeal can be filed at the National Court within two months.

Competition explains that these companies

used a system known as MLS

(Multiple Listing System), which works through a database that allows real estate users to share properties captured on a shared exclusive basis.

When a real estate user of the MLS captures a property, it can include it in the system, which allows the rest of the users to

make the sale

.

In this case, the capturing office and the selling office share the commission agreed for the global brokerage service offered.

In 2002, Remax and Look & Find promoted the project in Spain;

Habitania, later acquired by Idealista, was in charge of technological development;

In 2012, Inmovilla and Habitania adapted their systems to make them compatible;

and in 2017, Anaconda, made up of Remax, Look & Find and MLS, joined the structure and was in charge of developing and managing a common property sharing base.

In addition to the franchising companies Remax and Look & Find, the real estate software providers Idealista (through Idealista Tools), Inmovilia and Witei, actively contributed to developing and implementing the system through which the infringement was committed.

Rules of Procedure

The franchisors that developed this MLS system

approved a mandatory regulation

for real estate users that required a minimum commission of 4% on sales and one month on rentals. It also imposed a 50% commission distribution between the property's capturing office and the one that closed the transaction.

Failure to comply with the rules could lead to

disciplinary sanctions

and even the suspension of associate status, with the consequent impossibility of accessing the real estate exchange.

The software companies also participated in the anticompetitive conduct, since they were in meetings to design the system and established filters and other means of control that ensured that all properties uploaded to the system met the conditions required in the internal regulations, according to the CNMC.

The implementation of a software that

allowed the monitoring of fees in properties

captured from competitors and access to sensitive information among them made it possible to ensure the application of the system in the real estate market, which is characterized by being fragmented on the supply and supply side. demand.

Consequently, both the standards and the software developments limited competition between real estate companies by establishing minimum commissions and other commercial conditions and generating a level of transparency incompatible with the necessary competition between entities.

In addition, they excluded from the benefits of the MLS system those entities that were not willing to accept the anti-competitive rules contained in the regulations.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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