Rightmove will face a two-day hearing in the Competition Appeal Tribunal on 2 to 3 November 2026 over a £1.5 billion collective action that accuses the property portal of abusing its dominant position in the UK online housing market.
The case is led by Jeremy Newman, a former panel member at the Competition and Markets Authority, and is being run by Scott+Scott UK and fully funded by Innsworth Capital. The hearing will decide whether the tribunal grants a Collective Proceedings Order, the procedural step needed before the claim can move toward a substantive trial in 2027.
The claim says Rightmove charged excessive and unfair subscription fees to estate agents and new home developers between 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2026, while also using exclusionary conduct to keep rivals from competing on a level footing. Damages are pegged at roughly £1.5 billion, making the case one of the biggest competition claims ever brought against a UK consumer-facing platform.
That scale matters because Rightmove dominates the market it helps shape. The portal accounts for more than 80% of consumer time spent on UK property portals, and the claim says its operating margin is close to 70%, a level described as among the highest in the FTSE 100. Rightmove has said in the past that its pricing reflects the audience and lead volume it delivers, a defence that will sit at the center of the case.
The dispute arrives after years of industry frustration. A 2025 petition calling for a Competition and Markets Authority investigation into Rightmove's market power gathered thousands of signatures, and OnTheMarket revived its agent-led Resistance Tour in January 2026 as pressure on the portal intensified. The tribunal has given Rightmove until 29 July to file its response, and that filing is likely to show whether the company plans to fight the claim on its facts, its economics or both.
The next major test is not the damages figure but the tribunal's willingness to let the case proceed as a collective action. If Newman clears that hurdle in November, the legal fight over Rightmove's pricing power will move from allegation to evidence, and the market leader will have to defend the business model that has made it the default search site for British homehunters.
