The high-profile, industry-shaking battle between mega-brokerage Compass and dominant portal Zillow is back in the courtroom, as Zillow is asking a court to block a major MLS from cutting off its listing feed, claiming that Compass is engaging in an “illegal conspiracy” to promote its private listing and undermine Zillow. The 52-page lawsuit, which Zillow…
One day after plaintiffs in the largest buyer-focused lawsuit sought to block the National Association of Realtors®’ (NAR) $52 million settlement, a federal judge has curtly denied the request, pointing to her previous ruling when the same plaintiffs tried to prevent Anywhere from striking a similar settlement. “Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction as to Defendant…
Lawyers who launched the original buyer lawsuits—making largely the same accusations as Burnett but claiming homebuyers suffered harm—will seek to block the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) from striking a deal in a copycat case, asking a federal judge to block that deal based on what they describe as a “reverse auction.” In a filing…
A federal judge handed the National Association of Realtors (NAR) a major legal win today, throwing out a lawsuit by two brokers and an agent in Michigan, who had claimed that rules restricting MLS access violated federal and state antitrust laws. Douglas Hardy, Glenn Champion and Dylan Trent filed the lawsuit all the way back…
After months of silence—and some indications that it was backing off its most aggressive positions—the Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Donald Trump is again addressing what it describes as “anticompetitive rules, policies and practices in the residential real-estate industry” as it intervened in yet another commission case last week. In a 23-page “statement of…
After the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) made comprehensive updates to MLS policies—saying that most are meant to “modernize” and remove “outdated practices”—brokers who are currently suing NAR are citing the changes as an acknowledgment that these policies ran afoul of the law. In a court filing yesterday, lawyers representing three real estate professionals in…