“In all other states, and along with all other MLS, homeowners have the freedom to choose to market their homes in advance before they can be made public,” a press release from Compass State. “Outside of Washington, homeowners can choose to list their homes as compass private or as compasses that will come quickly as compasses and receive the benefits of the advance market.”
In the complaint, Compass claims that NWMLS is “a monopoly and a combination of competing real estate brokers.”
“Nearly 100% of residential real estate transactions by Seattle-area real estate brokers are listed in NWMLS, and NWML has no meaningful competitors,” the complaint adds. “NWML is directly interested in limiting competition among real estate brokers in the Seattle area, as it is owned and managed by competing real estate brokers, including the largest traditional real estate brokers in the Seattle area.”
According to the lawsuit, NWMLS “successfully prevents a meaningful threat to itself and its owner’s brokerage by adopting and enforcing a set of rules designed to force anyone who wants to buy or sell a Seattle area home with the help of real estate professionals.”
“Unless we stop, NWML continues to be involved in competitive and tortious behavior with Seattle area homeowners, compasses and compass brokers by robbing homeowners of choice, competition, compass brokers and powerful reasons to use potential monetary and non-merchant benefits brought about by compass innovative products and services.
Compass claims to be threatened by “innovative products.” The Seattle area competitors have agreed to adopt and enforce rules that hinder the exclusive list of offices, such as “owning and managing Windermere and other traditional real estate brokers.”
“NWML and its co-conspirators have since eliminated another rule of their own long-standing rules that they used to allow compass-only homeowners to use their office exclusive rights,” the complaint states.
The complaint alleges that in mid-July 2024, Compass asked NWMLS to change rule 2 to allow office monopolies.
“After seven months of trying to formally engage in the NWML rules change governance process for a rule change for seven months, NWMLS finally responded and simply refused,” the complaint states.
According to Compass, after NWMLS refused to change rule 2, it decided to offer only a three-phase marketing strategy to sellers signing “non-exclusive listing agreements.” That type of listing agreement is not subject to that rule as it is not accepted by NWML under Rule 4. The company argues that a week later, NWMLS responded by “bypassing traditional rulemaking procedures to change rule 4 over decades, and by submitting properties with non-exclusive agreement to NWMLS and requiring them to be covered by all NWMLS rules.
Compass claims to have turned his eyes to NWMLS Rule 6. According to this, “NWMLS will not accept the property if the home seller reserves discretion on whether to pay a fee to the buyer’s real estate broker.”
The company has since said it provided the option to sellers in the Seattle area, but within days NWMLS claimed that Compass was not complying with NWMLS rules and blocked the IDX feed without a “warning or due process.” According to the complaint, the move by NWMLS harmed “by forcing all compass clients, compasses and their brokers and homeowners to make it public before they’re not ready or listed at all.”
“As a result, all of these anti-competitive and tort acts maintain NWML’s market power, block competition from traditional real estate brokers that own and manage NWML, and rob Seattle area homeowners of the freedom, choice and benefits offered by Compass Private Exclusives,” the complaint states.
Compass claims that through this anti-competitive and suspected misconduct, NWMLS is harming consumers by robbing the freedom to sell and sell property as you choose, canceling out competition, reducing innovation available to consumers, and further hindering NWMLS’s Monopoly charges.
The Compass calls for a ju trial, NWMLS and all related ju trials, “requesting the involvement, execution, update, or conspiracy of the combinations and allegedly violated here.”
The TIFF between the Compass and NWMLS began escalating earlier this spring. TAT’s TIT between Compass CEO Robert Levkin and NWMLS CEO Justin Hague started with a Reffkin’s Instagram post specifically calling for NWMLS and its CCP.
HAAG has contacted NWMLS employees and said that Washington State real estate brokerage, as a member of NWMLS, has agreed to share all real estate listings with brokerages and the public for over 40 years.
In late March, a website called Washington Homeowners Rights, and a compass-backed website, surfaced as it called for a potential class action lawsuit from NWMLS home sellers. The site is looking for home sellers who have been “harmed” by NWMLS policies and have experienced a significant day in the market.
NWMLS has not returned a request for comment.
