Compass has sued an MLS. History could shed light on its antitrust claims
When it comes to how lists are displayed or controlled, a better example is one legal struggle MLS involved in Michigan RealComp II and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that ended almost 15 years ago.
Shrub through the memory strip
The RealComp II -right case stemes from a rule adopted by the MLS in 2001, in which it was stated that “mention of information that is downloaded and/or otherwise displayed on the basis of IDX is limited to properties stated on an exclusive right base (ERTs).”
Use lists as a result of this policy Exclusive Bureau (EA) list agreements And not ore agreements would not be sent to “approved” real estate list websites. These include RealComp -Lid IDX -websites, Moveinmichigan.com And Broker.com.
In their respective suits, head of claimants Home Quarters real estateA defeated discount broker who used EA agreements, and Eugene Allan, a home seller in Michigan, claimed that they have caused damage due to RealComp’s policy. They claimed that it prevented discount brokers from competing on the market, making sellers more to pay more for brokerage.
“Through this anti-competitive policy, RealComp members who use ERTS entitlements that have been benefited by illegally braking competition from brokers (A) use or wishes to use EA or other discount reports within the MLS of RealComp’s MLS, and (B) desire for EA FEMS from the MALCS from the MLS discount lists For the approved websites, the Allan complaints, which were shown in October 2010 in October 2010.
These claims reflect those of the FTC in its October 2006 administrative complaint.
The two lawsuits that were brought by Thuiskwartier were rejected and the Allan right case ended with a settlement. In addition, the FTC action resulted in one Final assignment Requires RealComp “to give its members non-discriminatory access to non-traditional and lower price loss on its MLS and to stop preventing such offers from being sent to his public real estate sites.”
Fast forward to 2025
The Pack of Compass, just like the Home Quarters case, claims that the MLS defender stifles competition by not allowing the brokerage to fully use ‘unique business model’. But unlike Thuiskwartier, Compass works as a traditional brokerage.
Although the FTC case ended with the ruling that the policy of RealComp policy oppressed the competition, it is still to see how the court will see the allegations that Compass has made against NWMLs.
In his lawsuit that was submitted to the American court in Seattle last week, Compass claims that the NWMLs – who is owned and controlled by some of the largest brokers in the Seattle area – is a monopoly and that compass is damaged by the competition rules. Especially it says that the NWMLS policy, unlike Nar’s Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), does not allow office exclusions.
‘[Office exclusives] Can be further appreciated by MLSS, whose financial incentives have been correlated directly with the number of entries included on their database, “the complaint claims.” The fewer property for sale outside the MLS, especially all possible included in a different list of the list network database, the more the MLS financially benefits. “
According to Paul Rogers, an antitrust right professor at the Dedman School of Law of Southern Methodist University, to win compass, Sherman Antitrust Act -Claim, it will have to check different boxes.
“First of all, they have to prove that NWMLS is a monopoly,” said Rogers. “The second question is, what kind of behavior are they busy? They are concerned with behavior that damages consumers, and use their monopolistic power to retain their monopoly by what we call exclusively behavior?”
By getting so far into the antitrust analysis, Rogers said that Compass will have to prove that the rules that harm consumers also harm competition.
“What the claimants have to show is that consumers are harmed, and because they are harmed, his competitors are,” Rogers said.
This is exactly what Thuiskwartier and Allan tried to prove in their lawsuits against RealComp, and what turned out to be true through the FTC action.
What about Zillow?
Although much attention is focused on the fight of Compass with NWMLS, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has also made some public statements that claim that Zillow is also concerned with competitive provision.
Earlier this month, Zillow announced a ban on all offers that were publicly marketed without being introduced in the MLS. Reffkin later claimed in one after on LinkedIn that this is’ on platform -based exclusion behavior, similar to the behavior that has been successfully challenged by the Doj in United States v. Google in 2023. ”
Reffkin continued to say that if Zillow was “successful in suppressing MLS -public marketing in the American real estate, it will prove its market dominance.” According to facts by Similar webZillow had an average of 353.8 million visitors during the first three months of the year, more than double that of the next biggest competitor, Broker.com (125.3 million visitors).
“Zillow who forbids homeowners who do not give them their listed sales, is like Google who says:” If you advertise somewhere, you have to advertise on Google. And if I see you somewhere else – even a social message, newsletter or postcard – for more than one day and you have not advertised on Google, “I don’t have the mail,” “Zillow really protects the buyer and seller or does Zillow protect the MLS and the free supply chain of the list?”
Because of the impressive market share of Zillow of the web traffic from offering Portal, Rogers said he can see where Reffkin has drawn parallels between the real estate giant and Google. But if a suit came about, Compass and Reffkin would still have quite a few things to prove.
“Like Google, Zillow is an independent entity with a large market share, so in a potential court case, if it turned out to be a monopolistic force, that would be a big problem,” Rogers said.
“But then they should prove that consumers are harmed by Zillow’s actions as a monopolistic power, so they would probably claim that Zillow is damaging consumers by not showing those lists that were publicly brought on the market before they were released in the MLS. But the question is to do this as a monopolist?”
Will history repeat itself?
As the battle for CCP becomes more frantic, it is still a possibility that a government involvement can be involved. But Steve Murray, the co-founder of Reeftrends consulting And an expert witnessing the FTC in his lawsuit against RealComp does not believe that the FTC will resume the role it had when changing RealComp’s policy.
“I think it’s probably the Ministry of Justice (Doj), “said Murray.” The FTC, their authority is harmful consumer behavior. The Doj Antitrust division also looks at that, but they are normally business issues such as Monopolies that influence the consumer, what they have viewed in the Google -Pak 2023. ”
Lawyer Rob Hahn, the founder and CEO of Las Vegas-based online real estate exchange Decentre Labsshared a similar point of view about his Notoriousrob Blog.
“The greater threat, as I see it, does not come from Kompas, but from the Doj where the man who has just taken over the #2 position in the Antitrust division, in the past has clearly said that the MLS is a problem. The lack of competition for listing services is a problem for the Doj,” he wrote. “The doj could take [the Compass v. NWMLS] Case as an opportunity to intervene, so it does not have to take its own action and send a clear message to everyone that they regard a lack of choice for brokers and agents in a certain market for listing services as a problem. “
The DOJ did a second civil research question in CCP in 2021. But it recently wrote in a footnote in an amicus assignment in the Nosalek Commission Sonse that “the division has not taken a position that such a policy is alone (ie, without compulsory MLS publication of offers of compensation or exceptions.”
Nevertheless, it is possible that the claims of Compass in its court case against NWMLs – and in a potential court case against Zillow – could change the neutral attitude of the Doj. This would strengthen the intensity of the CCP debacle.
