‘Lawfare is now the norm’: MLS leaders brace for more legal battles

On top of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Zillow against Council of MLSs (CMLS) member Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) and Compass International Holdings, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reexamining guidelines for broker cooperation and competition, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has threatened to sue any MLS that does not give in to his demands by Oct. 6. Needless to say, it would not be a surprise if many MLS executives currently had their general counsel on speed dial. “We are at an inflection point. A technological inflection point, a changing industry power dynamics inflection point, and importantly, a legal inflection point,” Mitch Skinner, a managing member of Larson Skinner PLLC, told attendees of CMLS’s Open House conference Thursday morning. “The legal landscape has never been more challenging than it is today.” “It feels like risk is ever present. There are the threats, there are the lawsuits. It is almost like Sitzer/Burnett created this chilling effect that has been passed on to all the other lawsuits,” Skinner said. Kelly Lennox, the chief legal officer of Northwest MLS (NWMLS), which just settled an antitrust lawsuit with Compass,...