The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to launch an in-depth study of the on-line property search sector following complaints that local councils are obstructing access to search information - but it has quashed a complaint that hub operator MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA) had abused its dominant market position, it announced last week.

MDA, which fronts a consortium that includes the Law Society, provides information from local authorities and other sources to the three licensed on-line search companies, one of which - Transaction Online - is its own subsidiary.


The OFT rejected a complaint by rival licensee TM Property Services that MDA and Transaction Online were abusing their dominant market positions by adopting pricing positions aimed at forcing it out of the market. It said that the on-line property search sector was not yet a separate market and that MDA and Transaction Online could not therefore be said to hold a dominant position.


However, the OFT acknowledged that there are concerns over the way the market is operating, with problems in accessing information held by local authorities.


Richard Megson, sales and marketing director of local search supplier OneSearch Direct, said an OFT study would address the concerns of many local search providers that local councils were obstructing access to data. He said: ‘Our own research shows that local councils can charge conveyancers up to £250 for their own local searches, which can take up to 20 days.’


Steven Foster, chief operating officer at TM Property Services, said he welcomed an OFT market study. He added that it was in no one’s interests for the property search market to become a monopoly.


Transaction Online managing director Martin Willard said both Transaction Online and MDA had always been confident that they had acted in a fair and reasonable fashion.