A group of eight REALTORS® from various states, all represented by the same California attorney, filed a lawsuit on Aug. 23 in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing Move, Inc., the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and Move parent company News Corp subsidiaries such as real estate lead generation technology platform Opcity of seven charges, centering around what it considers to be a ‘lead-generation scheme’ in which the leads in question are unvetted and fraudulent.
Essentially, the REALTOR® plaintiffs, Nevada’s James Bandy and Juan Carlos Carrera; Florida’s Kamesha Sylvester Hamilton and Cliff Woodall; California’s Bryan Casto; Washington state’s Michael Echternkamp; New York’s Maria Hardy; and Georgia’s Nidia Sanchez, contend that Move is selling scraped data, and then passing it off as leads, when in reality the individuals in the leads have “no interest in purchasing real estate.”
The plaintiffs, all represented by Los Angeles attorney Michael S. Traylor, seek class-action status, damages and whatever punitive and exemplary damages might be approved by the Court.
A NAR spokesman emailed RISMedia the following comment: “NAR does not own or operate Move, Inc. We will address these false allegations in court.”
A Realtor.com spokesperson emailed RISMedia the following comment: “We don’t intend to comment on pending litigation and will vigorously defend ourselves against all claims contained in the lawsuit.”
