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Compass escalated its battle over private listings in Washington state last week via a new lawsuit but, in doing so, revealed that waging war has come at a cost: The brokerage has lost both agents and listings in the course of the fight.
That information comes from Compass’ complaint, which the company filed Friday and which accuses Northwest MLS (NWMLS) of limiting competition. Among other things, the complaint recalls an episode earlier this month during which NWMLS cut off Compass’ IDX feed. An IDX feed takes data — such as listings — from an MLS and sends it to MLS members; in the complaint, Compass describes the move as a “group boycott” meant to “undermine” its business.
Eventually, Compass claims, that is exactly what happened.
“Brokers have reported clients fully canceling listing agreements because Compass can no longer offer them Compass Private Exclusive listings as an option,” the complaint states. “Brokers have likewise lost business opportunities because potential clients no longer wish to list their homes for sale at all as a result of the brokers’ inability to offer Compass Private Exclusive listings.”
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“Compass Private Exclusives” are properties the company markets exclusively through its own platform. Such listings are the first part of the brokerage’s “3-Phase Marketing Strategy” that sees homes put into the MLS only after they’re first marketed privately, then as “Coming Soon.”
The new complaint also indicates that multiple brokers left Compass after NWMLS shut off the IDX feed, and that three of those brokers “specifically cited NWMLS’s actions as the reason for their departure.” Moreover, according to the complaint, a managing broker at another company tried to recruit Compass agents during the IDX shutdown. The broker allegedly claimed in an email that “we’re fully in compliance with NWMLS rules. Our IDX [listings data] feed is live, accurate, and working exactly as it should.”
“No dramas, no disruption — just a stable, trusted platform to run your business on,” the broker’s pitch continued, according to the complaint.
Compass ultimately concludes in the complaint that “NWMLS’s actions against Compass were intended to, and did, have a chilling effect on Compass’s business — both with consumers and with its own brokers.”
That claim is key to Compass’ case, which rests on the idea that the brokerage is suffering thanks to alleged anticompetitive behavior on the part of NWMLS and various Washington brokerages.
For its part, however, NWMLS has previously defended its actions, saying that it shut off Compass’ IDX feed after the company broke the rules.
Inman has reached out to NWMLS this week and will update this story with any information the multiple listing service provides.
The new complaint also offers a detailed glimpse into how both parties ended up in conflict in the first place. The situation began, the complaint notes, when Compass first asked NWMLS to make a rules change in July 2024. The change would have allowed Compass to market private listings in Washington the way it does in other states, but in February of this year, NWMLS declined to make the change, according to the complaint.
In response, Compass pivoted to looking at NWMLS rules that it could interpret in ways that would allow it to market listings privately. NWMLS responded to Compass’ strategy by changing one rule, then telling the brokerage it was out of compliance when it pivoted to a different rule, the complaint states.
The complaint describes Compass’ Exclusives-friendly rules interpretations as a “competitive threat to” NWMLS’s “monopoly.”
Though the conflict is taking place in a single state, it is a case study in tensions over private listings. Compass began publicly leaning into the concept last year and has been open about its desire to build its own private listing network — an idea that has strongly polarized the real estate industry. Tensions over the concept flared just over a week ago when CEOs of multiple companies — including Compass, eXp Realty and others — began arguing about the issue in the comments section of a LinkedIn post.
In the case of Washington state, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin began criticizing NWMLS — as well as Washington-based franchisor Windermere — last month on Instagram. That prompted a war of words, with Windermere Co-President OB Jacobi firing back on several occasions. Friday’s lawsuit was just the latest salvo in the battle.
It remains to be seen who will prevail, but for now, Compass’ new legal complaint offers insights into the degree to which Compass is leaning into private listings.
“Outside of Washington,” the complaint reveals, “in the first quarter of 2025, approximately 48.2 percent of homeowners who listed their home with Compass started their listing using the Compass 3-Phased Price Discovery and Marketing Strategy; this equates to approximately 19,393 new listings in the first quarter of 2025.”
Read the full complaint here:
