CRMLS went on offense against Compass. Will other MLSs follow?

On Monday night, less than 24 hours before Compass International Holdings’ Oct. 6 deadline for MLSs to stop fining agents for publicly marketing office exclusive listings, California Regional MLS (CRMLS) filed its own suit against the Robert Reffkin-helmed firm. In its filing, CRMLS asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to provide it with a declaratory judgment stating that its Cooperation Rules do not violate state and federal antitrust laws and “an injunction permanently enjoining Compass from bringing or pursuing any claim against CRMLS alleging that the Cooperation Rules violate the federal or state antitrust laws.” This suit follows a string of threats made by Compass and Reffkin, including a Sept. 8 demand letter in which the brokerage firm threatened to sue CRMLS, alleging that its rules violate antitrust law. CRMLS publicly rejected these demands last week. In addition, at last week’s Council of MLS’s Open House conference, Reffkin threatened to sue any MLS that declines to make similar changes to its rules. Reffkin followed up with a social media post over the weekend, stating that his firm is “preparing a federal antitrust lawsuit against CRML...