Unlock MLS rejects Compass demand on clear cooperation fines

As with countless other MLSs across the country, in a Sept. 8 legal demand, Compass International Holdings’ outside counsel Nathan Eimer of Eimer Stahl LLP told Unlock MLS CEO Emily Girard that the brokerage would file an antitrust lawsuit unless Unlock agreed by Oct. 6 to stop fining or “punishing” real estate professionals for publicly marketing “office exclusive” listings. Unlock MLS, which serves more than 17,000 agents and brokers in over 3,600 offices in Central Texas, responded through its own counsel on Oct. 6 in a letter obtained by HousingWire that it would not provide that assurance. What Compass is alleging The Compass letter argues that Unlock’s Clear Cooperation (CCP) rule and related enforcement amount to an unlawful restraint of trade under federal antitrust law because the MLS is a “combination of competitors” that collectively controls how other brokers may compete and market listings and that Unlock requires listing submission to the MLS, which Compass says, effectively blocks a true “office exclusive” alternative by penalizing any public marketing of such listings, including on public-facing websites. Compass told Unlock it “will spend millions of dollars to sue...