Rightmove, or wrong move? Online property platform faces class action
Written by Erin Bradbury - 15 June 2026
Online property platform Rightmove is facing a £1 billion class action before the Competition Appeal Tribunal over allegations that it has abused its dominant market position. The claim alleges that the company charged estate agents and developers excessive subscription fees that rose substantially over time without much change to the services they received in return. Rightmove is one of the FTSE 100’s most profitable companies, with profit margins of around 70% in recent years.
This claim is being brought as an ‘opt-out’ collective action, whereby all eligible estate agents are automatically included unless they choose to withdraw. If the action succeeds, they will then need to come forward to receive compensation. (In contrast, for an ‘opt-in’ action, claimants would need to actively sign up – such as with the covid students' consumer claim). The opt-out regime was introduced in 2015 under the Consumer Rights Act for competition claims such as this one.
The claim was brought by accountant and former Competition and Markets Authority board member Jeremy Newman, and is being funded by Innsworth Capital, which is owned by US hedge fund Elliott Investment Management. Litigation funding has played a central role in several major UK group claims in recent years, including the diesel emissions and Post Office cases. Between 2019 and 2024, there were 44 cases involving litigation funding.
The market shifted in 2023, when the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the PACCAR case. The court held that certain third-party litigation funding agreements, under which funders were paid a fee calculated by reference to damages recovered, qualified as damages-based agreements. This left some collective proceedings unenforceable and contributed to a slowdown in new claims.
Since then, the government has announced its plan to reverse this decision and introduce regulation of third-party litigation funding to bring greater certainty to the market. This provides consequence to matters beyond the Rightmove case alone, as litigation funding is seen as central to many class actions. The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal chairman, Hodge Malek KC, has previously regarded “the role of funders as central in the whole collective proceedings regime.” The market is projected to continue growing, with one estimate valuing global litigation funding investment at $25.8 billion in 2026.