Mr Maloney said “the company was handed a gift by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to establish an Electronic Lodgement Network (ELN) and, in the absence of any real regulation, is well and truly capable of abusing this gift.”

He said PEXA’s statement about intending to cut out the ‘middle man’ for title searches “shows a complete lack of understanding of the industry it is attempting to monopolise.”

Australia’s information broker market is competitive and price sensitive, according to Mr Maloney, with the “actual cash profit from a NSW Certificate of Title as low as $1 to $2.”

“PEXA cannot believe that it will pull the wool over consumers’ eyes by saying that it will only take a ‘small margin’ after it has removed all competitors,” he exclaimed.

“It’s a bit rich for PEXA to claim that the PEXA Plus Marketplace is disrupting the information brokerage market, and an even longer bow to try and create fear by using a $30.38 estimation as the price of a NSW Title Search. In fact, the average price a conveyancer pays for a NSW Title Search is $12.50,” Mr Maloney continued.

The Electronic Lodgement Network Operator (ELNO) industry is currently subject to a number of independent reviews.

A GlobalX statement noted that the NSW government has engaged the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (NSW) to consult on pricing, while NSW Minister for Finance, Services and Property, Victor Dominello, “has been vocal in demanding interoperability from PEXA.”

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The Australian Registrars’ National Electronic Conveyancing Council has also engaged consultants for a review of the eConveyancing Intergovernmental Agreement, while also drafting new model operating rules to determine standards for ELNOs to comply with.

A new draft revision is proposing that ELNOs “can participate in adjacent services if those services are placed into a separate entity with internal governance,” GlobalX explained.

Mr Maloney said he was “astounded that ARNECC would offer up such a position.”

In essence, he said, ARNECC’s proposal allows PEXA to create a holding company, “put the ELNO – PEXA’s exchange into one subsidiary, become a conveyancer in a different subsidiary and then throw an information broker contract into a third legal entity,” with the effect being that PEXA is capable of controlling “the complete end to end conveyancing process.”

“PEXA is a pure monopoly with the perfect network effect as the only company in Australia that can lodge and financially settle a four-party transfer of title,” Mr Maloney said, despite competition being on the way.

“If the only way Victorians and Western Australians can receive the keys to their newly purchased property, or a vendor can have sale funds released, is to have a lawyer or conveyancer use the PEXA platform then, surely, this poles and wires play must be classed as critical infrastructure,” he continued.

“If PEXA is enabled to extend its monopoly into adjacent digital services to control a complete end-to-end conveyancing process, PEXA will make any competition and innovation in the legal and conveyancing tech space screech to a halt.”

“This would result in fewer high-skill jobs for Australians, less competition, less innovation and the derailing of a thriving tech industry,” Mr Maloney warned.