Property Brokers Manawatu and its director fined $1.5m for price fixing

• Manawatu’s biggest real estate company and its director have been fined a combined $1.5 million for price fixing.

A High Court judge called Property Brokers Manawatu the “ringleader” of the operation and fined it $1.45m, and also ordered company director Tim Mordaunt to pay $50,000.

Mordaunt said the penalty was “extraordinarily expensive”, considering “no-one” suffered financial loss.

The fine came after the Commerce Commission alleged Property Brokers and other agencies agreed they would pass on the full cost of advertising a property on Trade Me to vendors, rather than absorbing them as overheads.

READ MORE:
* $1.25 million price fixing penalty for real estate agency Manawatu 1994
* Palmerston North’s Unique Realty pays $1.25m price-fixing settlement