Mega-brokerage Compass faces new federal lawsuit as private listing battles keep heating up
The controversies surrounding Compass that have swirled all year just got hotter for the world’s largest real estate brokerage.On Thursday morning, six multiple listing services from across the country filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Compass International Holdings as a preemptive move to stop the mega-brokerage from filing antitrust lawsuits against them for imposing rules on brokers.The suit — from Arizona Regional MLS, Bridge MLS, Canopy MLS, REcolorado, Hive MLS and Doorify MLS — follows a similar one filed earlier this month in the same court by the California Regional MLS.Other MLS networks are expected to pile onto both lawsuits, sources told Gimme Shelter, including OneKey MLS, the MLS for metropolitan New York, which did not return calls for comment at press time.On Tuesday, OneKey’s CEO, Richard Haggerty, posted a statement defending its position: “Withholding inventory … [restricts] buy access … potentially limiting a seller’s return on their investment.
Consumers deserve the freedom to work with the professional they trust without being limited to one company’s private inventory.”A Compass network of private listings — meaning listings that are not in public view for house hunters to browse — is at the center of the disputes, which have only grown hotter in recent months.Critics say the private network interferes with the free, fair and transparent nature of public listing networks and — as per today’s suit — argue that Compass private listings give the brokerage an unfair competitive advantage and undermine the MLS (multiple listings service) system.For its part, Compass says it gives brokers and sellers “choice” to “test the market” without pesky information like how many days the home has lingered on the market or how many price drops it may have had.Compass also wants its brokers to be able to post their listings on MLS networks without following MLS rules.
In a state like Ca...