Grupo OLX Loses Appeal Against QuintoAndar in Ongoing 'Unfair Competition' Case

The Latin American horizontal marketplace operator Grupo OLX has seen an appeal against Brazilian real estate portal QuintoAndar rejected, five years after filing its first claims for unfair competition.

Grupo OLX, the leading marketplace in Brazil, had accused QuintoAndar representatives of using OLX's chat function on property listings to poach users to QuintoAndar’s app.

OLX alleged that QuintoAndar's goal was to promote its rewards initiative “Indica Aí”. QuintoAndar argued that none of its employees or other representatives were involved in any alleged malpractice, while it cannot be disciplined for the actions of any third party.

OLX sought financial compensation, among other reparations—because QuintoAndar was breaching terms and conditions—but a panel of experts could not disprove QuintoAndar's claims of innocence.

São Paulo’s Commercial Law Court unanimously ruled in favour of QuintoAndar, citing inconsistencies in OLX's legal arguments. It is the second time OLX has had a claim thrown out against QuintoAndar in a case that dates back to 2019.

Presiding judge Sérgio Kimura said OLX's legal arguments were inconsistent:

“In the initial claim, [the company] stated that the plaintiff’s employees were the ones committing the unfair competition.

"However, after the expert’s report demonstrated that they weren’t the plaintiff’s employees, it changed its argument, arguing that the defendant’s program itself gave rise to unfair competition.”