A high-stakes lawsuit by a listing startup targeting the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has been dismissed as part of a mutual agreement between the two parties, according to court documents filed yesterday, ending (for now) one of the most imminent and longest-running legal challenges to the Clear Cooperation policy.
The lawsuit, known as Top Agent Network (TAN) v. NAR was filed only days after Clear Cooperation was implemented in 2020, with California-based listing service startup TAN alleging the policy is intended to squash competition to the REALTOR®-controlled MLS system.
According to the filing yesterday, the lawsuit is being dismissed without prejudice, meaning TAN could refile allegations at any point. The case had recently been scheduled for a November 2025 trial, with the judge expressing frustration over how long the litigation had dragged on.
The news comes only days after NAR CEO Nykia Wright told RISMedia Founder and CEO John Featherston that she hoped to see the Clear Cooperation controversy “settled” in the next month or two.
An NAR spokesperson and Tobias Snyder, a lawyer representing TAN, both said that an “agreement” allowed the lawsuit to be dismissed, but characterized the dismissal as a “pause.”
“The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and Top Agent Network (TAN) announce that they have reached an agreement under which TAN will dismiss its pending antitrust case against NAR without prejudice. This pause will allow NAR to continue to deliberate the future of the Clear Cooperation Policy, including any possible interpretations or modifications,” they said, with Snyder adding that the statement was something the parties “jointly agreed to,” while declining to say anything further on the agreement or the lawsuit.
The TAN lawsuit has a long and convoluted path, having been dismissed by a district court judge back in 2021 but eventually revived on appeal. The San Francisco Association of REALTORS® until recently was also a defendant, but that organization was dropped as part of an agreement between NAR and TAN over jurisdictional disputes.
Although the TAN lawsuit represented a significant threat to NAR and the broader MLS industry, many other private lawsuits—and a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation, which was recently allowed to move forward by the Supreme Court—have also alleged the Clear Cooperation policy violates antitrust laws. The DOJ inquiry in particular appears to be honing in on Clear Cooperation, with NAR having promised to deliver documents to the DOJ specifically related to the policy within 30 days of the Supreme Court ruling.
Another lawsuit by a pocket-listing company, which at the time was known as PLS.com (now NLS.com)—also filed back when Clear Cooperation was first implemented—similarly saw NAR dropped without prejudice in January of 2024 (big MLSs who were named in that suit settled, however, under terms that have not been publicly disclosed).
An NAR lawyer later revealed in a court hearing that the organization had struck a “tolling agreement” in that case—a deal that extended the statute of limitations for the misconduct alleged by TAN.
NAR did not answer specific questions regarding whether it had a tolling agreement with TAN.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to RISMedia for updates.
Editor’s note: this story was updated with additional information at 12:19 a.m. eastern time.
