{"id":37813,"date":"2025-09-23T02:50:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/37813\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T02:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:50:06","slug":"harcourts-christchurch-franchisees-face-commerce-commission-cartel-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/37813\/","title":{"rendered":"Harcourts\u2019 Christchurch franchisees face Commerce Commission cartel action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe commission alleges this conduct was damaging because, between them, the franchisees had a significant share of the Christchurch real estate market,\u201d Small said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">For most Kiwis, buying and selling a house is a major transaction. People should be able to trust the process is free of collusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Commerce Commission chair Dr John Small says the franchisees had a significant share of the Christchurch real estate market. Photo \/  Mark Mitchell\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Commerce Commission chair Dr John Small says the franchisees had a significant share of the Christchurch real estate market. Photo \/  Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">The commission was not looking to challenge the franchise model generally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe franchise model is tried and tested and can work really well for Kiwis. Typically, franchises are organised so that franchisees don\u2019t compete with each other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">However, where franchisees are in competition, the law that prevents cartel conduct applies to them, just like any other business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIn this specific case, it just so happens that the cartel conduct we are alleging took place in the context of a franchise relationship,\u201d Small said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cFranchisees need to be aware of when and where they compete with one another and ensure that they do not engage in cartel conduct, which carries significant risks such as criminal sanctions and potential penalties under the Commerce Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">A Harcourts spokeswoman acknowledged the proceedings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHarcourts NZ confirms that we have received proceedings from the Commerce Commission. We take any allegations seriously and have co-operated with the Commerce Commission\u2019s process. As this is a legal matter, we will not be making further comment,\u201d her statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NzpREUNDumYW\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/anne-gibson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/anne-gibson\/\" target=\"_blank\">Anne Gibson<\/a> has been the Herald\u2018s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe commission alleges this conduct was damaging because, between them, the franchisees had a significant share of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[432,29944,10141,138,34599,4487,26501,7520,2371,34749,638,1872,34747,34746,29819,225,111,139,69,34748,6115,3048,1865],"class_list":["post-37813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-action","tag-alleging","tag-begun","tag-business","tag-cartel","tag-christchurch","tag-civil","tag-commerce","tag-commission","tag-conduct","tag-estate","tag-face","tag-franchisees","tag-harcourts","tag-involving","tag-market","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-proceedings","tag-real","tag-said","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}