The legal tit-for-tat between Compass International Holdings and Northwest MLS continued this week, with the megabrokerage telling a court that the “monopolist” multiple listing service was limiting consumer choice by enforcing its rules that block pre-marketed listings.
Compass and NWMLS have been locked in a lawsuit that could set legal precedent around whether multiple listing services can block coming-soon listings, one of the hottest trends and fiercest ongoing debates facing the industry.
Compass sued NWMLS last April in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington after the MLS briefly shut off the feed of listings in its coverage area over concerns about how Compass was marketing listings.
NWMLS filed counterclaims earlier this month, saying that Compass was using an “Orwellian-named” pre-marketing strategy, which includes Compass Private Exclusives and Compass Coming Soons.
Now, in a filing from April 23, Compass continued defending its pre-marketing strategy as pro-consumer, and criticizing NWMLS rules as an anticompetitive conspiracy by brokerages in the Seattle-area to block Compass.
“With its counterclaims, NWMLS tries to manufacture tort liability from Compass’ efforts to help its brokers comply with their fiduciary duties and offer homeowners different options to market their homes,” Compass wrote in the filing. “But NWMLS’s own anticompetitive ‘success’ in blocking those practices prevented any harm to it.”
“Thus, its counterclaims serve only as an unveiled threat to Compass and any other Seattle area brokers who might consider opposing NWMLS’s mandates or breaking from the conspiracy of brokers it has organized,” the filing continued.
NWMLS is one of just a few multiple listing services that prohibits all coming-soon listings. Utah Real Estate is another, though that MLS is preparing to change its rules to allow such pre-marketed listings, which are allowed by most other MLSs.
Redfin, which is headquartered in Seattle, recently called on NWMLS to change its rules and join the other MLSs serving the vast majority of agents and allow coming-soon listings.
Last month, Judge Jamal N. Whitehead, who is overseeing the case, denied a request from NWMLS to dismiss Compass’ lawsuit.
In response to the filing, NWMLS called Compass’ marketing strategy a “ploy” and an “exclusionary practice that hides material information and listings from the buyers who need them most.”
“Compass’ recent attempt to frame market transparency as a ‘monopoly’ is a distraction from the real issue: the creation of shadow inventory that benefits a single brokerage at the expense of the general public,” the statement said.
“We believe a fair market is an open market. We will continue to defend the pro-competitive rules that benefit all brokers and consumers and protect the public’s right to a transparent, competitive, and honest real estate market.”
