In yet another legal development within the residential real estate industry, Compass on April 25 filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle over Northwest MLS’s (NWMLS) Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), claiming that the brokerage-owned trade group has the most restrictive homeowner marketing rules in the country.
Compass explained its position in a press release.
‘In every other state, and with every other MLS, homeowners have the freedom to choose to pre-market their home before it goes public. Outside of Washington, homeowners can choose to list their home as a Compass Private Exclusive or Compass Coming Soon and receive the benefits of pre-marketing: they can test price, gain critical positioning insights, retain their privacy and confidentiality, and generate early demand without public price drops or accumulating days on the market.
‘The NWMLS is not a neutral player. It’s a monopolist—nearly 100% of the residential real estate transactions facilitated by Seattle area real estate brokers were listed on the NWMLS. NWMLS has successfully prevented any meaningful threat to itself and its owner-brokerages by adopting and enforcing a series of rules designed to force anyone buying or selling a home in Washington to do so through the NWMLS. Unless stopped, the NWMLS will continue depriving homeowners in Washington of choice, competition, and the benefits of pre-marketing.’
“Compass is proud to support Washington homeowners who are asking the right question: Why are we the only homeowners in America without a choice in how we sell our homes?” said Compass founder and CEO Robert Reffkin. “The NWMLS system wasn’t built to serve homeowners – it was built to preserve the monopolistic power of the NWMLS. We’re proud to stand with homeowners who want the freedom to choose how their homes are sold.”
This is a continuing story that will be updated.