Collusion

The unlawful practice whereby two or more people agree not to bid against one another so as to deflate value or when the auctioneer accepts a fictitious bid on behalf of the seller so as to manipulate or inflate the price of the property.

 Collusion, bid-rigging, bid suppression, restrain of trade are all illegal. It is also illegal for anyone or any group of people to create a conspiracy to do any of the above. A more intense description would be if two people that were placing bids on the same property create a circumstance together and collude to suppress the bidding is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. In recent cases where people have actually went to jail, one individual paid another individual to stop bidding against the person who ultimately bought the property. Stifled competition is an unfair trade practice. This creates a circumstance where the seller does not receive full benefit of free market competition. The biggest reason is someone paid another party to unfairly stop or interfere with the competitive bidding process.

If two or more people in anyway organize an effort to suppress, to stop, to degrade, or to disparage another person‘s legal business practice is a conspiracy to restrain trade. One example would be, if a real estate agency or a group of real estate agents or an agent, and or a real estate association conspire to suppress the business of the auctioneer. This practice is defined by the Department of Justice as restraint of trade and is punishable if convicted. 

Additionally, these acts all violate the International Association Of Realtors code of conduct and also violates most multiple listing service participant agreements.

The bottom line is, real estate auctioneers provide a professional, beneficial, and legal service; and if others, such as real estate agents, try to infringe on such a legal business practice, they could be guilty of collusion. This statement is in no way meant to be accusatory, but more or less a public service announcement for the benefit of education.