Robert Reffkin told a room of MLS executives Wednesday that, for two years, all Compass has wanted is the freedom to put listings on its own website. Attendees who spoke with Inman described a tense session and questioned whether the request stops there.
Reffkin spoke in a session moderated by CMLS CEO Jessica Edgerton at the Council of MLS Open House conference. He said Compass will begin filing antitrust suits in mid-October against MLSs that fine or punish agents for public marketing of office-exclusive listings. Inman obtained a recording of the session from an attendee.
“For the last two years, if you boil it down, all I’ve been fighting for is the freedom to put a listing on our website,” Reffkin said, according to the recording. “That’s it.”
His remarks came the same day California Regional MLS rejected a demand from Compass to stop fining agents over office exclusives. CRMLS said it will file counterclaims if Compass sues.
A tense room
The session drew a standing-room-only crowd, according to Eric Stegemann, CEO of TRIBUS Group, whose Solid Earth division makes login and security software for MLSs. Stegemann said CRMLS CEO Art Carter watched from the back of the room.
Colette Stevenson, CEO of Resides, an independent MLS in South Carolina, and a former CMLS board member, said the session was uncomfortable.
“The interaction when he was up there was very orchestrated and very uncomfortable,” Stevenson told Inman. “Something didn’t feel right.”
Stegemann said attendees began looking at one another about five minutes in. He said Reffkin read from prepared notes throughout the session, which he said he had not seen in previous appearances by Reffkin.
“It seemed like it was nothing more than just continued threats,” Stegemann told Inman. He said some of the executives in the room run MLSs with tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue, and “it felt like they were being talked down to.”
Ninoska “Nina” Fabbri, CEO of Homezai, a startup that uses AI to schedule and manage property showings for agents, also said there was tension in the room during the session.
Compass makes its case
Reffkin said that for more than 50 years, MLSs allowed everything Compass is now asking for. He cited NAR’s 1971 antitrust policy, which barred MLSs from making rules that regulate how listings are advertised. According to Reffkin, NAR has since dropped that provision, and in August 2025 it changed its definition of an office exclusive to exclude listings marketed to the public.
“Compass wants a world where the only person who tells an agent how to market a home is the seller and the law,” Reffkin said. “And the MLS is not the law.”
He pointed to Airbnb, which he said shows homes on a map without an exact address or price history. Reffkin said that approach gives sellers exposure and privacy, and that Compass agents who marketed homes that way would be fined in most of its markets as rules currently stand.
Reffkin said 96 percent of office exclusives go active on the MLS. MLSs that agree to Compass’ terms will receive a release of claims and a data feed of Compass’ office exclusives, he said, including address, status, list price and listing dates. He named Bright MLS, MLS PIN and Miami MLS as MLSs that allow public marketing of office exclusives.
MLSs that don’t comply will face lawsuits, Reffkin said, and “if we are forced to sue, there will be no settlement.”
Attendees question the scope
Stegemann said Reffkin simplified a complex request.
“He’s asking for a lot more than just to put listings on his website,” Stegemann said. When Reffkin said Compass only wants to put listings on its website, the line drew laughter from the room, Stegemann said.
Stevenson said Compass has the right to push for rules it favors.
“He has every right to advocate for the policies that he believes benefit his company and his clients,” Stevenson said. She said some of what Compass wants would not be difficult for MLSs to implement. “It just may not be what’s best for the marketplace.”
Stevenson added that she supports giving sellers more options, as long as access isn’t limited. “I would hate to think that a buyer missed out on an opportunity because a seller was not given all the options,” she said.
Concerns about market data
Fabbri said her concern is what happens to housing data if more homes are marketed outside the MLS.
“If we do what Compass is saying, we will no longer have that kind of data, and that’s going to hurt not only the housing industry, but think about the repercussions of that when it comes to economic reporting,” Fabbri told Inman.
Fabbri, who is from Nicaragua, said most countries don’t have a system like the MLS. “Inventory is the market, and data is its memory,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post after the session.
Stegemann said listings kept outside the MLS can’t be counted when agents and appraisers estimate the values of nearby homes. He said MLSs that agree to Compass’ terms could face lawsuits from sellers who say they lost money, and that he would ask Compass to indemnify the MLS against those claims.
What MLSs face
Reffkin said NAR has placed responsibility for enforcing MLS rules on MLSs, leaving them with the legal exposure. He also said plaintiffs’ attorneys from the commission lawsuits will bring class actions that include MLSs.
Compass was not the only brokerage pressing MLSs at the conference. On a separate panel Wednesday, executives from HomeServices of America, Howard Hanna, eXp Realty and other firms told MLS leaders that slow responses, inconsistent data standards and MLS boundaries frustrate their agents, HousingWire reported. Some panelists said brokers will build alternatives if MLSs don’t change.
What agents should weigh
Stegemann said agents should consider their fiduciary duty to sellers before recommending that a listing be kept off the MLS.
“They’re thinking about, ‘Well, my broker said it’s okay, so it must be okay,’ but at the end of the day, is it, or is it the right thing to do for their sellers?” he said.
Reffkin addressed fiduciary duty from the listing side. The listing agent’s obligation is to the seller, he said, “not to someone else’s buyer.”
Reffkin closed the session by suggesting MLSs compete by marketing themselves as a way for agents to share listings with each other while keeping them away from portals and AI companies. MLSs with participant-only networks, he said, “are going to grow.”
Stegemann said he understands keeping a listing private for a celebrity. For most sellers, he said, the answer is different.
“If my seller is not Tom Brady, I think the answer becomes pretty obvious that listing it on the place where we’ll get the most exposure and the most potential buyers for it is what’s in the best interest of the seller,” he said.
