Compass is pushing back hard against the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), arguing in a new court filing that its 3-Phased Marketing (3PM) strategy fully complies with Washington state’s incoming public marketing law—and that NWMLS’s counterclaims against the brokerage should be thrown out entirely.
In a motion to dismiss filed April 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Compass attorneys directly challenged NWMLS’s suggestion that a newly passed state law validates the MLS’s rules restricting private listings.
“3PM fully complies with this new law, which, contrary to NWMLS’s suggestion, neither entitles NWMLS to listings nor codifies its rules,” Compass wrote. “At any rate, the statute is not yet in effect and is irrelevant to their claims.”
In an emailed statement to RISMedia, Justin Haag, NWMLS CEO, claimed that Compass was attempting to frame what it calls market transparency as a “monopoly,” characterizing the argument as a distraction from the real issue: the creation of shadow inventory that benefits a single brokerage at the expense of the general public.
“While Compass labels its 3PM ploy as innovative, it is in fact nothing more than an exclusionary practice that hides material information and listings from the buyers who need them most,” Haag said. “By withholding listings and key information from other brokers and the public, Compass is manipulating critical market data, including days on market and price change history, which degrades the accuracy and reliability of the data NWMLS compiles and that all brokers, appraisers and consumers rely upon.
The NWMLS spokesperson added that the MLS “will continue to defend the pro-competitive rules that benefit all brokers and consumers and protect the public’s right to a transparent, competitive, and honest real estate market.”
In its own earlier court filing, NWMLS argued that state lawmakers, in passing the bill, “recognized that requiring brokers to publicly market to all consumers and all brokers is pro-competitive, and supported fairness in access to housing for first-time buyers and other marginalized groups.” It also explicitly said that Compass “knows that when the (new law) takes effect on June 11, the Private Phases (of 3PM) and related practices will violate state law.”
Compass declined to offer additional comments.
Weight of the law
The Washington bill, known as the Private Marketing Law, signed by the governor March 17, takes effect June 11 and requires brokers to market residential properties simultaneously to the general public and all other brokers rather than to select groups.
The law states that a broker “may not market the sale or lease of residential real estate to a limited or exclusive group of prospective buyers or brokers, or any combination thereof, unless the real estate is concurrently marketed to the general public and all other brokers.”
Through this Washington law, private marketing that isn’t simultaneously paired with public marketing and marketing to all brokers is prohibited.
A handful of other states have also considered or passed laws restricting private listings, though with important distinctions and exceptions.
This filing is the latest salvo in a closely watched antitrust lawsuit Compass brought against NWMLS earlier this year. Compass alleges the MLS abused monopoly power to block Seattle-area home sellers from accessing 3PM, a strategy the company offers in every other state where it operates.
Compass launched 3PM in the Seattle area in late March 2025. The program allows sellers to move through three stages: first as a “Private Exclusive” marketed to agents within Compass’s network; then as a “Compass Coming Soon” listing online and finally on the MLS and other public platforms. Compass says the model gives sellers control over pricing, timing and exposure—including the ability to test the market before a public launch.
Within days of Compass publicly announcing the seventh Private Exclusive in Washington state, on April 15, 2025, NWMLS issued a discipline complaint and amended its rules, cutting off Compass’s access to the IDX data feed—mandating that Compass brokers list all properties on the NWMLS—effectively forcing the brokerage to pause 3PM in the Seattle area. Access was restored two days later once Compass complied.
NWMLS then filed counterclaims alleging that Compass committed fraud, violated Washington’s Consumer Protection Act and tortiously interfered with the MLS’s business relationships—arguing that listings entered into NWMLS after 3PM contained misleading “days on market” figures and incomplete price histories.
Compass’s motion calls those claims baseless on multiple grounds. “Even indulging NWMLS’s theory of 3PM-generated inaccuracies in listing data, that ‘harm’ impacted an infinitesimal 0.00060137457 percent of its listings—a quantum of degradation that could not even qualify as de minimis.”
More broadly, Compass frames NWMLS’s counterclaims as a retaliatory tactic designed to chill competition.
“Only a monopolist like NWMLS would sue its own customer for daring to stand up for competition and homeowner choice,” the filing opens. The motion argues that NWMLS’s counterclaims “serve only as an unveiled threat to Compass and any other Seattle area brokers who might consider opposing NWMLS’s mandates.”
A hearing on the new motion is slated for May 21.
Editor’s note: This story was updated April 28 at 3:30 p.m. to attribute a quote to Justin Haag, NWMLS CEO.
