Barfoot & Thompson, Harcourts, LJ Hooker, Ray White fined close to $10m for price fixing

• Four major real estate agencies have been ordered to pay almost $10 million for price fixing.

In the High Court at Auckland today, Barfoot & Thompson, Harcourts, LJ Hooker and Ray White were found to have breached the Commerce Act when they joined forces to avoid increased Trade Me prices.

Trade Me previously charged the agencies a monthly subscription and allowed them as many property listings as they wanted, but in 2013 that was changed to $159 per listing.

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The Commerce Commission alleges that five agencies breached the Commerce Act by agreeing a planned industry response to a changed pricing model. / File Photo.