Accusing the mega-brokerage of conducting a scorched earth—and illegal—pressure campaign, California-based CRMLS said it has rejected a Compass “demand” that it alter rules around public marketing, and is preparing its own legal and public response to what it characterizes as self-serving and cynical moves to consolidate market share.
CRMLS General Counsel Ed Zorn, in a letter addressed to Compass lawyers obtained by RISMedia, wrote that he still hopes “cooler heads will prevail” but that CRMLS is preparing a counter-lawsuit with the expectation that Compass will soon take legal action over its rules restricting private marketing.
“Ample antitrust case law supports the proposition that CRMLS may enforce reasonable rules to prevent free riding by agents (and firms) that take the benefits of access to all of the cooperative MLS listing content, but then hide from cooperation and access their own listing content,” Zorn wrote.
Those “meaningful counterclaims,” according to Zorn, include breach of fiduciary duty and violations of state antitrust laws.
Speaking to RISMedia Wednesday afternoon, a Compass spokesperson confirmed the company would take the dispute “to the courts.”
As Compass has moved to pressure—or sue—multiple other MLSs, CRMLS’s response is maybe the strongest, most comprehensive opposition to the brokerage’s multi-year, multi-front campaign to lobby for its preferred policies across the industry. It comes as MLSs remain split on the push for rule changes that would favor Compass’s private listing-focused business model.
Compass has characterized its efforts as a defense of “seller choice” and the ability of consumers to market properties how they want to. It has accused MLSs like CRMLS of operating as monopolies.
The Compass spokesperson told RISMedia that the company would continue to pursue legal action and pressure MLSs that “tell people how to buy and sell their homes.”
In the letter, CRMLS also accused Compass of previously unreported backroom maneuvers, including offering $1,000 to induce CRMLS members to leave and join a competing MLS, and alleged its agents have used private listings as leverage in the marketplace.
The Compass spokesperson said they could not “speak to” those $1,000 offers, which CRMLS said came directly from CEO Robert Reffkin.
CRMLS said it plans to lead a PR and legal effort to defend what it calls the “fair and transparent” MLS marketplace, including the immediate launch of an “MLS Cooperation Legal Defense Fund” to “help defend the cooperative model” as Compass, in its letter, allegedly promised to spend millions of dollars to sue MLSs.
“This issue is bigger than Compass and CRMLS,” CRMLS CEO Art Carter wrote in an op-ed published by the MLS on Sept. 30.
The background
According to CRMLS, Compass sent a letter on Sept. 8 asking the MLS to not enforce its mandatory submission rule, claiming the policy amounts to a ban on public marketing outside of the MLS.
But the back-and-forth goes all the way back to 2024, however, with Zorn saying Compass “made almost identical demands” in November of that year.
In early 2025, Carter told RISMedia said that some brokers had threatened to sue the MLS over its stance on private listings, though it wasn’t clear if any of those threats came from Compass.
This spring, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin personally visited brokerages in CRMLS’ footprint and offered $1,000 to anyone who would leave CRMLS and join San Diego MLS (SDMLS), according to Zorn. That followed an industry conference where Reffkin allegedly told attendees that CRMLS membership would plummet.
Zorn said CRMLS “contemplated” suing Compass over these actions. Eventually, though, Compass and CRMLS leadership sat down for a face-to-face meeting, according to Zorn, in which CRMLS agreed to tweak its “Coming Soon” options for brokers. Zorn claimed that Reffkin and others “praised” the change and said it addressed his concerns.
“(R)eceipt of your letter only a couple of months later clearly indicates that none of the representations from Compass leadership were genuine or truthful,” Zorn wrote, adding that in that meeting, Reffkin “admitted” his goal was to be able to sell exclusive listings to Redfin.
The technical dispute over the policy appears to center on exclusive and non-exclusive right to sell agreements. Zorn noted that non-exclusive listing agreements don’t trigger the mandatory submission rule Compass is targeting, and claimed he had personally explained the issue to Reffkin and other top Compass brass over “many hours” of conversation.
The Compass spokesperson said this was another example of MLSs dictating how sellers can market their homes, arguing that consumers should not have to sign any particular kind of agreement.
Zorn added that CRMLS stands behind the principle that brokers who utilize the cooperative marketplace should contribute their own listings.
“If agents hiding for-sale properties from the cooperative were permitted to free ride off the hard work and contributions of CRMLS’ contributing brokers, by not submitting their clients’ listings into the MLS, then the cooperative system would break,” Zorn wrote.
Hard words
In his op-ed, Carter said that the Legal Defense Fund and other efforts are about maintaining the cooperative marketplace, accusing Compass of seeking “to benefit from the cooperative sharing of information while publicly marketing for-sale properties to benefit themselves.”
“CRMLS will not rewrite rules we believe support cooperation, transparency, access, and fair competition simply because defending them may be expensive,” Carter wrote.
CRMLS hopes to raise funds from “multiple sources” for the legal defense fund, with Zorn naming the California Association of Realtors® (CAR) and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) as possible contributors.
That effort appears designed to combat Compass’s widespread backroom campaign pushing MLSs to change or enforce certain policies, which has sparked or forced several MLSs to update their rules. Many MLSs proactively loosened their rules, noting that members support the ability to pre-market properties to some degree.
But Compass has also encountered significant pushback. NWMLS in Washington filed its own counter-lawsuit against Compass after the brokerage sued it early last year over its restrictions of private listings (the lawsuit was settled, with both sides claiming victory).
And Bright MLS, the largest MLS in the country, rejected Compass’s overtures on these policy changes, eliciting an emotional response from Reffkin, who said in an email to Bright CEO Brian Donallan that “you…and all the MLSs except MRED and Realtracs have completely sold us out.”
Zorn threatened that CRMLS would begin sharing stories about how Compass’s practices harm consumers as well, and solicit members to bring their own stories or complaints. Zorn claimed to have personally spoken to buyer agents who were ignored by Compass offices when seeking to access private listings.
He also claimed a Compass agent “required a potential buyer, that was also selling a home, to hire that Compass agent to list their existing property as a condition to gain access to the desired off-MLS for-sale property.”
The Compass spokesperson said that Compass believes MLS will eventually change their policies, claiming that 25% of them have altered their rules to allow this type of marketing. MLSs cannot be in the “regulation business,” the spokesperson said, noting that brokers are the ones with a fiduciary duty to clients.
“Currently, MLSs supporting more than 350,000 real estate agents across 12 states allow sellers to publicly market any listing, and we believe all MLSs should follow their lead, giving homeowners more flexibility in how they market their homes and bringing more inventory to buyers,” Compass said.
Carter, for his part, sought to frame all these issues as one of collective responsibility for those who believe in cooperation as the industry has traditionally understood it.
“The MLS has endured because competitors recognize that cooperation creates a stronger marketplace for everyone,” he wrote. “If you benefit from that cooperation, you have a responsibility to contribute to it.”
