MLSListings joins legal battle against Compass 

Another MLS has joined an escalating legal fight against Compass over listing transparency.

In other recent courtroom news, the brokerage giant said it plans to file a motion to dismiss in a similar lawsuit with two MLS plaintiffs, and three of the firm's affiliated agents said they plan to request that a judge quash the subpoenas they were issued in the National Association of Realtors' ongoing legal battle with ThePLS.com.

7th MLS joins lawsuit against Compass

MLSListings announced on Monday that it has signed on as a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought last month against Compass. The addition of the Northern California MLS is reflected in an amended complaint filed Oct. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit was originally filed on Oct. 21 by Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, BridgeMLS, Canopy MLS, Doorify MLS, Hive MLS and REcolorado. The MLSs allege that Compass initiated a pressure campaign aimed at convincing them to stop fining agents who do not comply with the organizations' pre-marketing and listing submission rules.

Those efforts by Compass took the form of demand letters that the brokerage giant sent individual MLSs. In the amended complaint, MLSListings said it received its demand letter on Sept. 8.

"When publicly marketed homes are withheld from the shared marketplace, buyers lose access to opportunities, sellers may miss potential offers, and smaller brokerages are placed at a disadvantage," MLSListings President and CEO Dave Wetzel said in a news release. "We are joining this lawsuit to defend the cooperation that gives everyone a fair opportunity to compete and helps consumers make informed decisions."

When reached for comment, a Compass spokesperson said it is "almost as if these MLSs are asking people to ignore the evidence that proves their claims aren't true."

"For years, seven of the top 25 MLSs, covering 340,000 agents across 12 states, have allowed agents to publicly market 'office exclusives' without fines, and none of the problems they warn about have happened. If what we are asking for is so bad, why has it worked for years in nearly 30% of the country?" the spokesperson said.

Compass to seek dismissal of CRMLS case

Also on Oct. 30, Compass said in a letter addressed to Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil that it intends to seek dismissal of a similar case that California Regional MLS (CRMLS) brought against the firm in early October. New York-based OneKey MLS has since joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff.

In the letter, Compass' legal counsel Nathan Eimer said the company plans to file a motion to dismiss the case and, if that motion is denied, to sever the plaintiffs' claims and have the CRMLS case moved to a court in California.

Compass planned to ask for the case to be dismissed before OneKey joined, the letter noted, and the addition of the second MLS plaintiff "changes none of that."

OneKey's claims against Compass "are improper," the letter alleged, because the MLS "sued one week after its extended response deadline and — like CRMLS — pleads that it filed suit because Compass's demand letter was a 'real and imminent' threat of litigation."

 The brokerage further alleged that the addition of a New York plaintiff following the company's stated intent to get the case either dismissed or moved "is procedural fencing in its plainest form."

3 Compass agents ask judge to quash subpoenas from NAR

Battles over subpoenas served by the National Association of Realtors in the ongoing lawsuit against the trade association brought by pocket listings website ThePLS.com are continuing, with three Compass-affiliated agents now getting into the fray.

NAR wants the three Los Angeles-based agents — Chris Cortazzo, Josh Flagg and Tracy Tutor — to provide deposition testimony and documents that NAR said would be relevant to its legal battle with ThePLS. But Compass' legal team has previously argued that NAR's requests are "unduly burdensome, overbroad, and duplicative" and were issued "to intimidate and harass rather than for legitimate information-seeking purposes."

In an Oct. 30 filing, the legal team representing the agents — who are not named parties in the case — said they will seek to have the court quash the subpoenas on Nov. 20. The filing said the agents' legal counsel will also request that their clients be awarded "reasonable expenses and attorneys' fees incurred in responding to the Subpoenas" and "any other and further relief as the Court deems appropriate."

Eric Fanchiang, an attorney representing the agents and Compass executives who were also subpoenaed in the case, also filed a declaration last week in support of the agents' impending request. An attorney for NAR has meanwhile filed their own declaration in support of the organization's subpoenas.