MLSListings, a Northern California MLS serving brokerages across Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, filed an amended antitrust lawsuit against Compass International Holdings on Friday. The suit joins six other MLSs that filed claims in mid-October: Arizona Regional MLS, Bridge MLS, Canopy MLS, REcolorado, Hive MLS, and Doorify MLS.
The MLSs seek court permission to enforce cooperation rules without violating antitrust law. They also request an injunction barring Compass from claiming that MLS cooperation rules violate federal or state antitrust laws.
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin sent demand letters to MLSs nationwide in early September, threatening litigation if they continued fining or penalizing Compass agents for publicly marketing office-exclusive listings. Reffkin repeated these threats in late September at the Council of MLSs Open House conference, stating his firm would spend millions pursuing litigation against non-compliant MLSs.
Compass argues that MLS boards, composed of competing brokers, create anticompetitive rules governing business conduct. The MLSs counter that cooperation rules promote competition and prevent brokers from using the MLS to source buyers while withholding their own listings. The complaint cites a 2007 Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice report on real estate brokerage competition supporting MLS efficiency and consumer benefits.
A Compass spokesperson told HousingWire that seven of the top 25 MLSs covering 340,000 agents across 12 states have allowed public marketing of office exclusives without fines "for years" without the problems the MLSs warn about. The spokesperson stated that agent fiduciary duty runs to clients, not MLSs.
California Regional MLS filed a similar lawsuit against Compass in October in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. OneKey MLS joined that lawsuit last week. Compass filed its own lawsuit against CRMLS alleging the MLS unlawfully restricts how homeowners and agents can publicly market properties outside the MLS.