OneKey MLS joins CRMLS lawsuit against Compass

New York-based OneKey MLS has joined California Regional MLS (CRMLS) as a co-plaintiff in its federal lawsuit against Compass International Holdings.

The move, announced Tuesday, follows OneKey’s public rejection last week of Compass’s demands to roll back local cooperation policies. The amended complaint, filed in federal court, asks a judge to affirm that rules requiring the shared, public marketing of listings are consistent with antitrust law and support an open marketplace.

OneKey, which serves more than 48,000 real estate professionals across Long Island, New York City and the Hudson Valley, framed the dispute as a test of how listing data is distributed and who gets access to it in an era of growing private networks and off-MLS marketing.

“This case raises questions that extend far beyond any one company or market,” Richard Haggerty, CEO of OneKey MLS, said in the announcement. “It goes to the core of how homes for sale are shared, how everyday buyers access that information, and how we protect a fair, equal housing market for everyone. We believe these issues demand clarity from the court and joining CRMLS gives OneKey a direct, active voice in securing it.”

CRMLS, the nation’s largest MLS by subscriber count, originally filed the case against Compass and has been seeking court guidance on whether its listing cooperation rules can be maintained without running afoul of antitrust enforcement trends.

“I’m looking forward to working alongside OneKey MLS in the fight to protect the open marketplace and keep real estate fair and transparent for brokers, agents and consumers alike,” Art Carter, CEO of CRMLS, said.

In the amended filing, OneKey said that withholding listings from the open MLS harms consumers by restricting buyer access, undermining fair housing goals and potentially limiting a seller’s financial outcome. The MLS also argues Compass is “having it both ways” by participating in cooperative marketplaces to access other brokers’ listings while keeping some of its own inventory within more fragmented, proprietary systems.

OneKey said it views seller choice and an open, competitive marketplace as compatible goals, arguing that clear court guidance is needed to define where that line sits.

In an emailed statement a Compass spokesperson told HousingWire that it is “almost as if CRMLS and OneMLS are asking people to ignore the evidence that proves their claims aren’t true.”

“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,” the spokesperson wrote. “If what we are asking for is so bad, why has it worked for years in nearly 30% of the country?”

This move comes nearly a week after Arizona Regional MLS, Bridge MLS, Canopy MLS, REcolorado, Hive MLS, and Doorify MLS filed their own lawsuit against Compass, echoing the claims made by CRMLS in its initial filing. Compass has since filed a lawsuit against CRMLS alleging that its rules  unlawfully restrict how homeowners and their agents can publicly market properties outside the MLS.

Source: www.housingwire.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.