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A group of real estate agents who colluded to push up local fees in southwest England has been fined £370,084 ($500,620) by national competition authorities after incriminating emails were uncovered detailing the cartel's illegal plans. The six agents were all based in the Burnham-on-Sea area in the county of Somerset and had agreed in a meeting to fix their minimum commission rates at 1.5 percent in order to avoid the possibility of clients negotiating a better deal when undertaking local property transactions. The ultimate aim of these actions was to drive up profits for all firms involved. The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) told CNBC via email on Tuesday that given it is the second time it has had to take enforcement action against real estate businesses in recent years, there is a clear suggestion of "low levels of competition law awareness" in the sector.

"This is why we have on each occasion followed up our enforcement action with a targeted compliance campaign to raise awareness of competition law. Indeed, our recent case started as a result of information provided to us following our earlier campaign, so hopefully our message is getting through," said Stephen Blake, senior director in cartels and criminal enforcement at the CMA. Blake was alluding to the help of a sixth estate agent in uncovering the collusion. This agent was not among the five fined given that it was the first to confess participation in the cartel to the CMA and thereafter cooperated with the latter's investigation. "The CMA has a leniency program under which cartelists can confess their involvement in cartel behavior and cooperate with the CMA in exchange for a reduction in fines or, in some cases, complete immunity. Around half of our cartel cases come to us this way," noted the competition specialist.

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