Plaintiffs seeking to revive a lawsuit accusing Realtor.com parent company Move of selling allegedly deficient or “fake” leads were dealt another setback Thursday, when the 9th Circuit declined to rehear their appeal.
The ruling comes after the 9th Circuit dismissed the agents’ appeal on Aug. 13 for lack of jurisdiction, finding that the lower court’s arbitration order was not yet a final, appealable judgment.
The case dates back to August 2024, when a group of real estate agents sued Move, the National Association of Realtors and several other defendants over leads purchased through Realtor.com. The plaintiffs alleged that many of the leads they received were fake, nonexistent or otherwise failed to live up to what they said had been promised when they signed up.
At the time, Move denied the allegations and told Inman it would “vigorously defend” itself against the lawsuit. But in conversations with real estate professionals, Inman found that agents who were not involved in the case had also complained of issues with Realtor.com leads, including disconnected phone numbers, undeliverable emails and consumers who appeared to have little or no interest in buying or selling a home.
Court filings show that in March 2025, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. ordered the agents’ claims against Move into arbitration and dismissed the case without prejudice. The plaintiffs appealed that ruling, arguing that they had never agreed to arbitrate their claims.
More recently, in an Aug. 13 memorandum, the three-judge panel focused on whether Blumenfeld’s ruling was final enough to be appealed. Although Blumenfeld dismissed the case, he also said the move would be “functionally indistinguishable from a stay,” meaning the parties could return to his court after arbitration if they needed a judge to review or enforce the outcome.
“We conclude that the district court did not intend to enter a final decision ending the case,” the panel wrote. “Accordingly, we lack appellate jurisdiction.”
The agents asked the full 9th Circuit to reconsider the ruling on Aug. 24, arguing that the panel had erred on the jurisdictional issue and should also have addressed whether Move’s arbitration agreement was enforceable.
That dispute centers on how the agents say they purchased Realtor.com leads. In their opening appellate brief, the plaintiffs said they entered into oral agreements over the phone to buy a set number of real estate leads for a monthly fee, with payment made during the call. They argued that Move later sent confirmation emails containing links to separate online terms and conditions that included a mandatory arbitration clause.
The agents said they never clicked a box, signed anything or otherwise affirmatively agreed to those later terms. Their appeal asked whether Move could add arbitration terms after an oral agreement had already been completed and paid for, and whether they could be compelled to arbitrate without what they called an “unambiguous manifestation of assent.”
“No ‘acceptance’ of the terms on such webpage was ‘ticked’ or ‘clicked’ by Appellants,” the plaintiffs wrote.
On Thursday, Judges Lucy Koh and Holly Thomas voted to deny rehearing en banc, while Judge Susan Graber recommended denial. The full court was advised of the petition, but no judge requested a vote on rehearing. The order leaves the district court’s arbitration ruling in place and prevents the agents from challenging it through this appeal.
Realtor.com did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for comment on the 9th Circuit’s rulings.
