MLSListings has joined six other multiple listing services in a federal lawsuit against Compass, expanding a growing legal coalition seeking to defend rules requiring brokerages to share publicly marketed home listings through the MLS.
The Sunnyvale, California-based organization, which serves approximately 16,000 subscribers across Northern California, announced Monday that it had joined a lawsuit filed Oct. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit names Compass, Inc. as the defendant.
MLSListings joins Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, bridgeMLS, Canopy MLS, Doorify MLS, Hive MLS and REcolorado, which filed suit against Compass on Oct. 21 seeking to uphold rules requiring participating brokers to submit listings to the MLS within one business day of publicly marketing a property.
Its addition brings the number of MLS organizations involved in litigation against Compass to nine across two federal lawsuits filed against Compass. California Regional MLS and OneKey MLS are plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit against Compass, as opposition to the brokerage’s challenges to listing-sharing requirements continues to grow nationwide.
Dave Wetzel
“In Silicon Valley and throughout Northern California, buyers, sellers and real estate professionals depend on timely, accurate information to make important financial decisions,” MLSListings President and CEO Dave Wetzel said in the announcement.
“When publicly marketed homes are withheld from the shared marketplace, buyers lose access to opportunities, sellers may miss potential offers, and smaller brokerages are placed at a disadvantage. We are joining this lawsuit to defend the cooperation that gives everyone a fair opportunity to compete and helps consumers make informed decisions.”
According to an amended complaint filed Oct. 30, Compass sent MLSListings a demand letter on Sept. 8, threatening federal antitrust litigation unless the organization agreed to stop enforcing rules generally requiring brokers to submit listings to the MLS once they publicly market a property. MLSListings received an extension until Oct. 28 to respond.
The complaint says MLSListings serves 22 California counties and maintains a database containing more than 1.2 million historical listings. The organization offers several alternatives to fully public marketing, including office-exclusive listings, a members-only coming-soon option and the ability to restrict distribution to third-party websites.
At the center of the dispute is Compass’s demand that MLS organizations stop fining or otherwise penalizing agents who publicly market office-exclusive listings without submitting them to the MLS. Compass argues that the restrictions amount to an unlawful agreement among competing brokers that limits how agents and homeowners can market properties outside the MLS.
The MLS organizations counter that their rules are necessary to preserve cooperation and prevent brokerages from benefiting from listings shared by competitors while withholding their own publicly marketed properties. They maintain that sellers can still choose private listings or limit their properties’ exposure, provided they comply with the rules governing public marketing.
The seven plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that their cooperation rules comply with federal and state antitrust laws, along with an injunction preventing Compass from pursuing antitrust claims challenging those rules.
