Gascoigne Halmen appeals against OTM and loses

Gascoigne Halman, a real estate agency that was created by Connells Group, a real estate agents and lettings agent provider, has lost its appeal against propert portal giant, OnTheMarket.

OnTheMarket said it welcomed the Court of Appeal decision to dismiss its opponent’s appeal in the Agents’ Mutual v Gascoigne Halman case.

Gascoigne Halman had been challenging the ‘one other portal’ rule. It lost at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, whose decision was  unanimously upheld this morning at the Court of Appeal.

In a statement just released to the stock market, OTM says:

“The Board of OnTheMarket plc notes that the Court of Appeal has issued judgment in favor of its wholly-owned subsidiary Agents’ Mutual Ltd with regard to all the competition issues in its proceedings against Gascoigne Halman.

“As the major part of its defense against our claim of breach of contract, Gascoigne Halman, led by its parent Connells Group and with funding from Zoopla, had alleged that Agents’ Mutual’s contract with them was void for illegality on competition law grounds.

“Following a ten-day hearing, the Competition Appeal Tribunal issued a unanimous judgment in July 2017 which rejected those arguments and supported the view consistently held by the Board of Agents’ Mutual and OnTheMarket that the Company’s strategy for entry to the portals market has been pro-competitive and that the Company has operated within the law.

“The Court of Appeal has today unanimously and comprehensively dismissed the appeal by Gascoigne Halman of the Tribunal’s findings."

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