 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Finance and insurance |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Peterborough London United Kingdom |
Key people | Mark Bailie (CEO) |
| Parent | BGL Group |
| Website | www |
Comparethemarket is a UKprice comparison website, founded in 2006, that is part of theBGL Group. The website also offers other online companies the ability to provide their customers with a co-branded orwhite labelled comparison service.[3]
In 2009, the company launched an advertising campaign featuring a series ofmeerkat characters (tied in with the supposed pronunciation of the word "market" in aRussian accent), after which it became one of the "Big Four" price comparison website in the UK.[4]
The website was set up by Budget Group (nowBGL Group) in early 2006,[5] following a decision to sell its high street business toSwinton.[6]
In 2012,Comparethemarket.com.au launched its comparison service in Australia. The Australian company's television advertisements also feature the meerkat characters Aleksandr Orlov and his Head of IT, Sergei. However, these ads differ from the UK's, with one such storyline revealing the meerkats have purchased comparethemarket.com.au.
In 2017, it was announced the company was under investigation by the competition regulator surrounding allegations regarding most favoured nation clauses with home insurance providers.[7][8][9]
Comparethemarket allows customers to compare prices on a number of insurance products including car, home, van, life, pet, travel and over 50s insurance. It has also expanded in to the comparison of items that can be switched such as energy/utilities, broadband and digital TV, as well as a range of financial products such as loans, credit cards, current accounts and mortgages.
On 5 January 2009, the company launched an advertising campaign featuring aCGImeerkat character named "Aleksandr Orlov"[10] who pleads with viewers looking for cheap car insurance to stop confusing his meerkat comparison websitecomparethemeerkat.com withcomparethemarket.com, due to the similarity between the wordsmeerkat andmarket. As part of the campaign, Comparethemeerkat.com was created which did indeed allow visitors to compare meerkats.[11]
On 26 November 2012, the website started sponsoring the long-running soap operaCoronation Street onITV in a three-year deal, costing around £30 million.[12]
In December 2012 another advert was launched this time featuring Maurice Wigglethorpe-Throom (played byRobert Webb) the founder of Compare the Market and his assistant Spencer who find out about Aleksandr (who makes a cameo appearance in a photograph) and Compare the Meerkat.[13]
In 2018, the BBC reported that theCompetition and Markets Authority (CMA) found “most favoured nation” clauses in Comparethemarket's contracts with insurance companies which effectively banned them from selling their home insurance at cheaper prices on rival websites.[14] The CMA chief executive,Andrea Coscelli, said: "Our investigation has provisionally found that Comparethemarket has broken the law by preventing home insurers from offering lower prices elsewhere. This could result in people paying higher premiums than they need to." In November 2020 Comparethemarket was fined £17.9 million by the CMA for breaking competition law as a result of their investigations.[15][16]
The four price comparison websites with the greatest market share. They are moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, comparethemarket.com and confused.com.
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