A third MLS today publicly rejected threats from Compass over listing rules, as New York-based OneKey MLS joined CRMLS in California and Unlock MLS in Texas in refusing to change policies despite significant back-channel pressure and legal threats from the mega-brokerage.
In a release early this morning, OneKey CEO Richard Haggerty said the MLS would continue defending cooperation, and accused Compass of “(w)ithholding inventory from the open marketplace…at the direct expense of consumers.”
“Consumers deserve the freedom to work with the professional they trust without being limited to one company’s private inventory,” Haggarty said.”That cooperative model creates equal opportunity, and those fundamental protections are worth defending.”
A Compass spokesperson told RISMedia via email that “(t)he problem with the arguments MLSs use is that they are premised on the idea that agents are bad and sellers are stupid.”
“(The MLSs’ arrguments) make a collection of competitors the judge, jury, and executioner for how agents compete, and take away from homeowners the freedom to make informed decisions for themselves,” the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson disputed OneKey’s contention that Compass is trying to “benefit from shared inventory” while keeping its listings outside the public marketplace, saying that sellers want to market their without being subjected to MLS policies related to pre-marketing, sale of listing data and display of what the company has called “negative insights” like days on market and price drops, among other things.
The public battle over listing control, which Compass has also taken to federal court, comes as part of a fast-escalating campaign by the nation’s largest brokerage to reshape real estate, focused on rules that disallow off-MLS marketing. Compass has accused the MLS industry of operating a monopoly, separately suing Zillow for alleged antitrust violations over similar rules.
RISMedia previously obtained a letter from Compass’s legal counsel sent to several MLSs that promised the brokerage would spend millions in legal costs to force MLSs to change policies or practices that restrict off-MLS marketing—a letter OneKey acknowledged receiving.
In its own legal response published to OneKey’s website, an attorney representing OneKey said the MLS has precedent on its side.
“Courts have repeatedly recognized that MLS rules must be evaluated in light of their actual competitive effects and legitimate business purposes. And Compass identifies no authority establishing that the reciprocal sharing of publicly marketed listings is inherently unlawful,” the response says.
A Compass spokesperson previously told RISMedia that MLSs will encounter “legal issues” as long as they have rules that restrict how people buy and sell homes. The spokesperson said the company is hopeful that MLSs will eventually change those rules proactively.
New York style
OneKey notably operates in New York—right where Compass was founded and maintains a significant presence around New York City. Anywhere’s headquarters is also right across the river in New Jersey, and agents under the Compass International Holdings (CIH) umbrella make up a significant portion of OneKey’s over 40,000 members.
The Compass spokesperson noted that overall, Compass brokerages share more listings with listings with the MLS than any other brokerage, and that the company’s agents continue to cooperate on off-MLS listings.
Compass, in its lawsuits and public statements, has regularly noted that its agents make up an outsized portion of many MLSs’ total memberships, accusing the ones who restrict Compass’s marketing strategies of neglecting or punishing their customers.
OneKey took a somewhat more measured tone as it rejected Compass’s demands, while still saying the MLS “stands firm for an open, cooperative marketplace” and repeatedly claiming its rules allow “seller choice.”
“OneKey MLS believes home sellers should have flexibility and choice, which is why we provide a range of marketing options, including those that protect seller privacy,” the MLS claimed. “Compass’s demand, however, seeks something fundamentally different: the ability to advertise homes for sale while hiding them from the shared MLS database.”
Compass pushed back on this characterization in court, claiming that 93% of its “pre-marketed” listings end up on the MLS eventually, and noting that Compass agents still show MLS listings to their buyers—evidence that it is not “free riding” on the data and support of the MLS system.
While CRMLS and Unlock MLS both offered a narrative around how they had sought to work with Compass ahead of the brokerage’s ultimatum, OneKey’s statement instead focused on the MLS as a vehicle for housing access and equality, citing sociologist Elizabeth Korver-Glenn and NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who have both criticized the kind of private listing practices Compass uses as eroding fair housing principles.
“Fragmenting publicly marketed properties across individual brokerage networks creates unnecessary barriers that directly undermine fair housing objectives,” OneKey wrote. “Hiding listings for some, but not others, creates an invisible barrier that systematically shuts out minority and first-time buyers from equal homeownership pathways.”
Compass has argued its listings are actually more accessible than MLS listings, with CEO Robert Reffkin saying in court that the company had a fair housing lawyer “sign off” on its controversial “black box” that teases private listings on its website.
Also like the other MLSs challenged by Compass, OneKey characterized the ongoing battle as much larger than one brokerage, one policy or one dispute over how listings can be marketed.
“Compass’s challenge strikes at the core of how real estate operates, raising a consequential question for the industry and the consumer: Will publicly marketed homes remain accessible to everyone, or will the marketplace fracture, making access a private privilege determined by the listing company?” OneKey asked.
Editor’s note: this story was updated with comments from a Compass spokesperson at 11:01 a.m, and again at 11:19 a.m. with more information and comments from Compass.
