Toronto Real Estate Board, regulators clash over privacy rights in VOW policy 
Proposed policy would restrict display of sold and pending listings
By Andrea V. Brambila, Monday, August 22, 2011.
Flickr image courtesy of Franco Folini.The Toronto Real Estate Board says the privacy rights of consumers are at stake in a lawsuit brought against the board by Canadian regulators regarding the operation of virtual office websites (VOWs).
Canada's Competition Bureau filed suit against TREB in May, claiming the board hasn't allowed brokers to provide consumers with access to detailed multiple listing service (MLS) data through password-protected VOWs like those operated by ZipRealty and Redfin in the U.S. In June, TREB -- North America's largest real estate board at 31,000 members -- published a proposed policy that would allow members to operate VOWs.
Last month, in an amended complaint, the Competition Bureau said the proposed policy restricted the display of sold and pending listings and the compensation offered to the buyer's broker through VOWs, and alleged the policy would "entrench and perpetuate the traditional 'bricks and mortar' business model for providing real estate brokerage services," and "constitute a further anti-competitive act" under Canada's Competition Act.
TREB filed a formal response to the amended complaint Friday denying that "TREB's policies with respect to the use of and access to the TREB MLS constitutes a practice of anti-competitive acts."
The response added that TREB's policies "have been formulated to safeguard the privacy rights of TREB's members and TREB's members' customers ... in their individual listings and to ensure TREB and its members are compliant with their respective statutory obligations."
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