Key facts
- MLSListings serves subscribers from over 6,000 brokerages in five Northern California counties.
- The amended complaint reiterates claims from an initial complaint filed in mid-October by six MLSs.
- The MLS plaintiffs seek an injunction barring Compass from challenging their cooperation rules under antitrust law.
- Compass sent demand letters to MLSs in early September threatening litigation over fines on agents marketing office-exclusive listings.
- Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said at a late September conference his firm would spend millions pursuing litigation against MLSs.
- A Compass spokesperson told HousingWire the MLSs are asking people to ignore evidence that their claims aren't true.
MLSListings, a Northern California-based multiple listing service serving subscribers from over 6,000 brokerages in Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, joined a lawsuit against Compass International Holdings in an amended complaint filed on Friday, according to HousingWire.
The amended complaint reiterates claims made in an initial complaint filed in mid-October by Arizona Regional MLS, Bridge MLS, Canopy MLS, REcolorado, Hive MLS, and Doorify MLS. The MLS plaintiffs are asking the court to allow them to continue enforcing their cooperation rules and policies without violating antitrust law, and seek an injunction permanently barring Compass from bringing or pursuing any claim against any MLS party alleging that the cooperation rules violate federal or state antitrust laws.
The MLSs claim they were prompted to file the lawsuit after Compass sent demand letters to MLSs across the country in early September, threatening to sue them if they did not stop fining or penalizing Compass's agents for publicly marketing office-exclusive listings. Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin reiterated these threats on stage at the Council of MLSs' Open House conference in late September, claiming that his firm would spend millions of dollars pursuing litigation against MLSs that refused to comply.
Compass has contended in public statements and in its recently filed lawsuit against CRMLS that the MLS is anticompetitive because it is made up of a board of competitors creating rules governing how Compass and other members can run their businesses. The six MLS plaintiffs argue that their cooperation rules promote competition among broker members and help prevent brokers from using the MLS to find buyers while withholding their own listings from free-riding on the contributions of other participants. The complaint cites the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice's 2007 report on competition in real estate brokerage to support its position that MLSs create efficiencies and provide meaningful benefits to consumers.
In an emailed statement, a Compass spokesperson told HousingWire: "it's almost as if these MLSs are asking people to ignore the evidence that proves their claims aren't true." The spokesperson added: "For years, seven of the top 25 MLSs, covering 340,000 agents across 12 states, have allowed agents to publicly market 'office exclusives' without fines, and none of the problems they warn about have happened. If what we are asking for is so bad, why has it worked for years in nearly 30% of the country?" and "An agent's fiduciary duty is to their client, not to the MLS. Only the law and the homeowner should tell real estate professionals how to publicly market a home, and the MLS is neither the law nor the homeowner."
The claims in this lawsuit are nearly identical to those made in a lawsuit filed earlier in October by California Regional MLS (CRMLS) also in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Last week, the New York-based OneKey MLS joined CRMLS's lawsuit against Compass. Compass has filed its own lawsuit against CRMLS, alleging that the MLS's rules unlawfully restrict how homeowners and their agents can publicly market properties outside the MLS. The firm has yet to file a lawsuit against another MLS, despite its lingering threats.