Federal Court Mandates Real Estate Sales Commission Competition
April 8, 2011 8:34 AM
American homeowners are the beneficiaries of the 6th district federal court's April 6 opinion affirming the Federal Trade Commission's earlier decision prohibiting multiple listing services from blackballing competitors who charge home sellers less than the prevailing real estate sales commission rates. The FTC had earlier ruled that Realcomp MLS's policy of prohibiting discount broker members from advertising their listings on Realcomp's website was nothing more than a transparent effort to maintain high real estate commission levels. The American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance filed a brief in support of the FTC's efforts in that case. In her decision Circuit Judge Karen Moore concluded that "substantial evidence supports the Commission's findings that: 1) Realcomp's website policy gave rise to potential genuine adverse effects on competition due to Realcomp's substantial market power and the website policy's anticompetitive nature; 2) the website policy in fact caused actual anticompetitive effects; and 3) Realcomp's proffered precompetitive justifications were insufficient to overcome a prima facie case of adverse impact. These findings establish that Realcomp's website policy unreasonably restrained competition in the market for the provision of residential real-estate-brokerage services in southeastern Michigan and the Realcomp MLS area."
American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance President Bruce Hahn thanked Judge Moore for her wisdom and the FTC for it's diligent defense of American homeowners. "This decision means that the issue is dead. Many other MLS's have tried the same tactic, and the NAR invested heavily in this appeal. They have lost every case. It is time for MLS's and industry leaders to put this issue behind them and stop wasting their members' dues money on lost causes that only offend their customers and tarnish the profession's reputation. Instead they should focus instead on how to better serve their clients and their members."
