Irish Regulatory Authority Deals Blow to Daft's Vendor Paid Advertising

The Irish regulatory authorities have decreed that leading property portal Daft.ie must not offer agents discounts in return for promoting its services to vendors.

In a blow to the portal's commercial plans to expand its vendor-paid advertising program 'Premier Partners', the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) formed the view that Daft's agent discounts amounted to "inducement" and must be stopped immediately.

In comments to The Business Post in October, Daft's Chief Commercial Officer Adam Ferguson said that while the Dublin-based marketplace operator did not agree with the PSRA's assessment, it has stopped offering the discounts in question.

The ruling dates back to a complaint from the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers made in 2022. The industry body was concerned about Daft's practice of giving some agents discounts on their portal subscriptions in return for promoting extra visibility services to vendors.

Daft is the leading real estate portal in Ireland and has the backing of multi-national online marketplaces operator Adevinta which owns a 50% stake in the portal's parent company, Distilled Media.

The Premier Partners program was launched in 2021 and is an attempt to generate extra revenue by tapping into the vendor's wallet. Although agents in Ireland have to pay a subscription fee to list on Daft.ie and Distilled's other titles, if they sign up for the Premier Agent program they can have the vendor they represent pay extra to get greater exposure for their listing on Daft's portal.

Agents who sign up for the program and convince their vendors to stump up for extra visibility also get additional photos, extra large branding and individual agent profiles on the portal. Until recently they also got a discount on their portal subscription as well.