Collin County News Online: Realtors Group Wants U.S. Supreme Court To Undo Antitrust Order

REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

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Appeals court revived challenge to association’s policy
Rival real estate platform wants exclusive listings

(Reuters) – The National Association of Realtors has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a U.S. appeals court ruling that revived an upstart real estate platform’s challenge to home-listing policies it said were implemented to curb competition.

The association’s lawyers at Cooley and other firms on Friday filed a petition seeking to wipe out an april ruling in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court reinstated claims from listing service ThePLS.com LLC, after a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed its complaint against the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

PLS, which now operates under TheNLS.com LLC, has sought to offer “pocket,” or exclusive, home listings that do not also appear on NAR’s member-operated “multiple listing services” platforms.

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But NAR’s 2019 “Clear Cooperation Policy” said an association member who wanted to list a property on PLS also was required within one business day to list the home on an NAR-affiliated database.

Attorneys for the Chicago-based association told the justices that the 9th Circuit panel misapplied U.S. Supreme Court precedent in ruling for PLS. NAR’s lawyers also alleged the PLS platform was detrimental to consumers.

“PLS wants to pursue a business model that would harm buyers and sellers by injecting more exclusivity and secrecy into the home buying process through ‘pocket listings’ showed only to a privileged few,” Cooley’s Adam Gershenson wrote. He said NAR’s policies “ensure consumers’ widespread access to market information.”

A representative from PLS on Monday did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Lawyers for PLS at the firms Jenner & Block and Davis Wright Tremaine on Monday declined to comment.

A NAR spokesperson did not immediately comment on Monday. The association has said its cooperation policy “advances equal opportunity in housing by ensuring listings are widely available and accessible to all.”

PLS, which launched in 2017, sued the real estate association in 2020 for alleged violations of competition law. The plaintiff’s complaint said NAR-affiliated multiple listing services enforce the cooperation policy through fines for non-compliance.

The appeals court panel found NAR’s cooperation policy, “as PLS characterizes it, shares all the hallmarks of a group boycott.”

NAR’s lawyers argued there was no “boycott” since real estate brokers could use PLS or other listing services.

The case is The National Association of Realtors v. ThePLS.com, U.S. Supreme Court, No. unknown.

For The National Association of Realtors: Adam Gershenson of Cooley; Jerrold Abeles of ArentFox Schiff; Robert Hicks of Stream Kim Hicks Wrage & Alfaro

For ThePLS.com: Christopher Renner of Jenner & Block; and David Gossett of Davis Wright Tremaine

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