Property portal Rightmove is the subject of a class action as estate agents claim it has overcharged for its services. The claim, first reported in November 2025. has now been submitted to the Competition Appeal Tribunal by Jeremy Newman, a former panel member of the Competition and Markets Authority, claiming the property portal has been ‘abusing its dominant market position’ by charging ‘excessive and unfair’ subscription fees.
The collective legal action could be worth as much as £1.5 billion and is said to have already gathered the support of over 250 estate agent businesses. “There has been an extremely encouraging response from estate agents since we announced this legal action. The stories shared by businesses, both small and large, have confirmed long-held concerns in the market about Rightmove’s conduct,” said Newman.
Around £300 million was wiped off the company’s market value following the announcement last week.
Rightmove said it was aware of reports of an application to begin collective proceedings against it, commenting in a statement: “Rightmove is confident in the value we provide to our partners and consumers, who are at the core of our business solutions and digital platform.
“As one of the most efficient parts of the UK housing market, we help people across the UK to move home by bringing buyers, sellers, renters, landlords and agents together.
“Our platform continues to provide a growing range of constantly evolving products and features which facilitate market transparency, liquidity and confidence. This claim is without merit, and we will defend it vigorously.”
The claim is fully funded by Innsworth Capital, with legal support from Scott+Scott UK LLP and independent economic analysis by Kairos Economics.
James Hain-Cole, partner at Scott+Scott, commented: “For years, thousands of businesses have been captive customers of Rightmove, which faces no effective competition. It’s therefore been allowed to financially squeeze its subscribers by consistently and materially raising prices without proper justification or explanation. We’re pleased to have now filed this important legal action and to be supporting Jeremy in seeking redress for thousands of British businesses.”
A website outlining the details of the claim and encouraging support describes Rightmove as “unavoidable and unaccountable”. The claim will seek to “recover estate agents’ overpaid fees” between 1st April 2020 and 1st April 2026 and “rebalance their relationship with Rightmove”.
